The 56th season of the German Bundesliga will start today in Munich, where the champions Bayern are scheduled to meet Hoffenheim, who finished third last season.

Bayern dominant

The Bundesliga has become quite predictable in recent years. Bayern had been strongly dominating, and they won the title for six straight years (2013-18). The lack of rivalry results in the Munich side regularly clinching a title with four or five matches to go, which is not very exciting. And the gap between Bayern and the rest is simply huge: for example, last season "Der Rekordmeister" finished as many as 21 points clear of the runners-up Schalke-04, and a year before, they enjoyed a 15-point advantage over RB Leipzig.

Coaches and players come and go, but Bayern stay strong. The 73-year-old Jupp Heynckes came out of retirement last autumn to lead them to another title, but stepped down in summer. Munich wanted to replace him by Thomas Tuchel, but he opted to sign for PSG, so ultimately Bayern picked Niko Kovac from Eintracht Frankfurt to be their new coach.

It was not an obvious choice, but Bayern's squad is so strong that they can win the Bundesliga with any coach. Veterans Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery are still there, Manuel Neuer, who missed most of the last season through injury, is now fit, and Robert Lewandowski confirmed his scoring talent in the recent German Supercup, where Bayern emphatically beat Eintracht - 5:0 thanks to the Pole's hat-trick. Besides, the Munich team, whose bosses are keen on keeping a German core, have bought two young German talents, Leon Goretzka and Serge Gnabry. 

Second place is the limit?

Are there any rivals to possibly challenge Bayern? Hardly. Still, some teams will try. Borussia Dortmund is the one that quickly comes to mind - however, they failed to even finish second in two previous seasons. Last year was quite turbulent for Dortmund - with Peter Stoeger replacing Peter Bosz in winter and the best striker Pierre-Emerick Obameyang leaving for England midway through the season, Borussia finished just fourth. Now they have yet another coach, and Lucien Favre, who has the experience of working at Hertha and Borussia Moenchengladbach in the past, can be quite a good choice. Besides, the Dortmund bosses have added two robust players - Axel Witsel and Thomas Delaney - to their otherwise highly skilled squad. But only time will show whether this mix will work or not.

Schalke had no need of changing the head coach, as the young Domenico Tedesco did a good job. The team played a very disciplined football, and finishing second in the past season was quite a success. However, now they have lost the key midfielder Leon Goretzka to Bayern, and a promising defender Thilo Kehrer was sold to PSG, so Tedesco will need to fill the gaps.

Hoffenheim will play the last season under Julian Nagelsmann, as the super-talented young coach will take charge of RB Leipzig next summer. Both Hoffenheim and Leipzig aim for high places in the opening season, but it is hard to predict their limits.

No Hamburg for the first time ever

Tayfun Korkut is another coach to look at - taking charge midway through the last season, he not only saved Stuttgart from relegation, but lifted them to the decent 7th place. With the newly crowned world champion Benjamin Pavard and some renowned German players like Mario Gomez in the squad, Stuttgart can also fight for at least the tickets to the Europa League.

For the first time ever, the Bundesliga is starting a season without Hamburg. "The Dinosaurs" were relegated last year, just like another former heavyweights Koeln. They were replaced by Fortuna Duesseldorf and Nuernberg.