Pep Guardiola has steered Bayern Munich through a stuttering start, always knowing that the Bundesliga champions will improve during the season, the club's CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has said.
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Bayern Munich came under pressure following two wins and two draws in their first four matches of the season. However, a 4-0 victory at home to SC Paderborn has taken them to the top of the league, and they have already put four points between them and Borussia Dortmund, their biggest rivals ahead of the season.
Following the World Cup, Bayern Munich had to contend with several injuries to key players like Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thiago Alcantara, Franck Ribery, Holger Badstuber and Arjen Robben, leading the club to reinvest 35 million euros into their squad by signing centre-back Mehdi Benatia from Roma and midfielder Xabi Alonso from Real Madrid during the final days of the summer transfer window.
While earlier this week, Guardiola and Rummenigge spearheaded the widespread complaints from the Bundesliga about the ever-increasing workload for the players, Rummenigge, who turned 59 on Thursday, was in a much brighter mood when he discussed the start of the season with the official club website.
"Lots of people thought we'd make a patchy start. We always pay a certain price for the World Cup, as you can see from our long injury roster," he said.
"You never quite know how it'll go after the World Cup like the one we've just had so we can be pleased with the start we've made. It's given us security, belief and some peace and quiet. We're on track for another successful season."
In the middle of the storm, steering the club through their first shaky matches, was Pep Guardiola, who has received criticism from parts of the media for turning the club into an "FC Bayern Espanol," due to several new Spanish additions.
"The coach has always told us not to worry. He was in a similar situation with Barcelona in 2010 when the Spanish came home as world champions," Rummenigge said.
"Pep is doing a great job, and I make no apologies for repeating myself. He's always rocking the boat in the most positive way, because he's continually reinventing things."
"The biggest problem for every opposing coach will always be trying to double guess Bayern Munich's tactics. Pep can lift both the team and every individual player to a new level."
At the weekend, Bayern travel to Cologne, and after that fly directly to Moscow, where they are set to play their second Champions League match of the season against CSKA on Tuesday.
The match will take place behind closed doors, after UEFA hit CSKA Moscow with a full stadium closure for racist fan chants and banners during last season's Champions League campaign.
While, Bayern Munich fans have protested against the full stadium closure, arguing that they are not to be held responsible for misconducts by other fan groups, UEFA has not lifted the ban.
"I've been involved in football for 40 years but I've never experienced anything like this," Rummenigge said. "Football is all about atmosphere and emotions, but apart from a handful of officials and reporters, there'll be no-one else at the stadium. It's an incredible shame and no-one needs that. I'm really upset for our fans."
"A few of our supporters haven't missed an away game in 25 years, but on this occasion we've had to inform them they can't get in, even though they're not to blame in the slightest. They tried everything they could, including an open letter to UEFA, but unfortunately to no avail."
Martin Brinkmann, of Bayern's biggest fan association Club Nr.12, told ESPN FC that the words went down well with the Bayern Munich fans: "That the club feels sorry for us fans would have been unthinkable 14 months ago."