Leaders Bayern Munich will be keen to put some turbulent days behind them when they meet fourth-placed Bayer Leverkusen while Borussia Dortmund travel to Hertha Berlin in two top-four Bundesliga clashes tomorrow.
Champions Bayern are at Leverkusen in their first match since coach Pep Guardiola’s future was confirmed as manager at Manchester City next season.
But even before the announcement, Guardiola was the focus of media attention amid reports of disciplinary problems and a mood of dissatisfaction in the squad after the coach had reportedly criticised some players.
The latest controversy surrounds midfielder Arturo Vidal who was reported by Sport Bild to have left the team camp several times during last month’s training camp in Doha and returned intoxicated.
Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge dismissed the report and a
reference to a salary of “8 million euros net a year” as “malicious” and “false.”
Sports director Matthias Sammer said: “Maybe one is trying to make the league more exciting or to create a situation that it will be tighter and Dortmund get nearer.
“I can only say they will achieve the opposite. We will be even more united as a team and be even closer.”
Keeper Manuel Neuer said Thursday: “We stick together and we are all there for each other. There are no problems in the team. The things that are being transported from the outside don’t touch us.”
The mood at Bayern has not been helped by the club’s injury problems.  After the loss of central defender Jerome Boateng to a groin muscle tear, defensive alternative Javi Martinez has undergone knee surgery and will be absent for several weeks.
After insisting there would be no “panic buys,” Bayern then went out and signed central defender Serdar Tasci on the last day of the transfer window on loan from Spartak Moscow. Tasci promptly suffered light concussion in his first training session and is not likely to be available against Leverkusen.
Bayern can expect a tough game at Leverkusen, who started 2016 with four points from two games and have only lost one of last six home games against Munich.
The match also brings together two on-form strikers in Robert Lewandowski, who has scored all four of Bayern’s goals in 2016, and Javier Hernandez who has 13 goals in 16 league games for Leverkusen.
Dortmund, eight points adrift of Bayern, also face a difficult trip to third-placed Hertha Berlin, who have lost only one of their last nine competitive games - 2-0 to Bayern.
Dortmund in their first season under Thomas Tuchel and Hertha under Pal Dardai - appointed almost exactly a year ago - are having impressive seasons. At the same stage last season, Hertha were last and Dortmund second to last.
Seventh-placed Wolfsburg, with the league’s worst away record and a poor start to 2016 with just one point, go to fifth-placed Schalke.  Wolfsburg midfielder Julian Draxler is set for a first return to his old club, where he spent 14 years before joining the Wolves in August, but has come down with a flu virus and could be a doubt.
If he recovers, Draxler, whose last game for Schalke was coincidently at Wolfsburg in a 3-0 defeat early in the season, can expect a vitriolic reaction from Schalke fans- The Gelsenkirchen faithful were also unforgiving of Neuer’s decision in 2011 to leave for Bayern Munich.
“This won’t be a normal game for me,” Draxler told Sport Bild. “I saw what happened with Manuel Neuer after his move to Bayern - I am prepared for the worst. Of the 60,000 crowd, 55,000 will be against me.”
Borussia Moenchengladbach and Werder Bremen will meanwhile be out to banish the curse of Friday evening when they get the weekend programme rolling.
Moenchengladbach, who started the year with two defeats, have not won any of their last six Friday evening games, losing five of them and failing to score a single goal.
Third-last Werder’s record is hardly better, with their last six Friday games failing to produce a win. But they managed to win in Moenchengladbach two months ago, a thrilling 4-3 in the cup.
Elsewhere, Eintracht Frankfurt host VfB Stuttgart, with both sides unbeaten so far this year, Augsburg, now seven games without defeat, are at Ingolstadt, and basement side Hanover are at home to Mainz, having lost four of their last five home games.
On Sunday, SV Hamburg welcome fellow midtable side Cologne, while second-last Hoffenheim are at home to Darmstadt.