Why Matthias Sammer Comments Will Turn Heat Up on Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich

Bayern Munich were held to a 0-0 draw with Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday night and will now have to welcome the Ukrainian side to the Allianz Arena in two weeks' time to finish off the tie and reach the quarter finals of the Champions League. 

This may seem like a simple enough task, yet the Bavarian giants are secretly brewing in the shadows. Germany's biggest club aren't happy with how things are going at the moment, and the threat of once again becoming FC Hollywood grows ever closer.

This week's criticism of Pep Guardiola came from Matthias Sammer, his seemingly right-hand man, who was far from helpful in discussing Bayern's recent European hiccup. 

Sammer told German tabloid Bild, which was later covered by Goal on February 19:

"

This is not yet the Bayern Munich we would like to see.

We are on the right track, but we are not at the level we want to be at yet.

We should not be dissatisfied, but we have to remain alert. So long as that's the case, I'm in a good mood. If not, however, less so.

We must continue to improve. We are not at the highest level yet. We should look in the mirror and should acknowledge we are not at our best yet. We are still a few per cent off our best.

"

Yet this isn't the first time the current manager has bizarrely come under attack from those within the club. 

Markus Schreiber/Associated Press

Sammer once again dug himself a hole just before the winter break when he claimed German football simply didn't understand Guardiola's style of football.

"It is not yet understood in Germany how Pep thinks," proclaimed the sporting director to a room of baffled journalists, later reported by Sports Bild (h/t the Daily Mail). "The system does not change to shoot the team in the foot."

However, the tangled words of Sammer don't even come close to suggestions earlier last year from Der Kaiser himself, Franz Beckenbauer, who labelled Guardiola's side "boring" live on air as a pundit for Sky Deutschland. 

As reported by Spanish paper Marca at the time, Beckenbauer went off on a rant arguing that the best route to goal is through more shots and fewer passes backwards, before stating that the German champions were going to end up "unwatchable like Barcelona." A clear dig at Guardiola's former team. 

Despite Bayern's global appeal, the club from Munich can often seem like a very exclusive members' bar. A sporting club for only the very best of German football. Come in, shake things about and the establishment often barks back.

This is why the club are so often referred to as FC Hollywood. It's a tongue-in-cheek reference to the manner in which Bayern so often become their own worst enemy from one season to the next. And it seems as though they may be on the cusp of yet another episode. 

Guardiola's squad may still sit top of the Bundesliga by a handsome margin and should overcome Shakhtar without any real stress in front of their own fans, but the constant threat of utter mayhem following one bad result seems to be bubbling just under the surface. 

It would take a remarkable series of interesting events for Bayern to give up the league title now, and the DFB Pokal should be a trophy in their cabinet come May, but we would need to see a notable change in attitude and performances to consider this team as contenders for the European title. 

For all Sammer's incompetence in the media this week, the former defensive midfielder was right on the money. This isn't the Bayern that has won Champions League trophies of late, and if we don't see it soon, then there may well be trouble. 

@Sbienkowski