Even Arjen Robben, in his state of annoyance, laughed at the cliche of it. It was another August Friday night opening for the Bundesliga as champions, another win for Bayern Munich and another goal for the flying Dutchman – and as with every time when he doesn’t start a match, even at the ripe old age of 34, he wore a buzz of indignation around him. So, was he annoyed to be left out? “Yes,” he chuckled, with necessary brevity.

Plus ça change, you might think, as neutrals cling to unlikely scraps of hope that there might be a title race worthy of the name over the coming months. If Bayern remain overwhelming favourites, though, there is a sense that they come into this season needing to put a few things right.

That Thomas Müller was the central figure in the win over Hoffenheim – his opener made him the first player to score the first goal of a Bundesliga season on three separate occasions, before his smart pass set up Robben’s clincher late on – was significant in this context.

Carlo Ancelotti shreds the Napoli narrative with comeback win over Milan Read more

“The first few days back home weren’t the best of my life,” Müller had told the club’s in-house TV channel in an interview that followed the German national team’s early return from the World Cup. His performance on Friday night, bristling with invention in a midfield position that Pep Guardiola had openly suggested he didn’t have the technical quality to succeed in, continued the reaction that he had verbally outlined. “We want to show everyone,” he had continued, “that Bayern and the national team can do better.”

Whether purposely or not, Müller had hit the nail on the head. With so many of Bayern’s key players main protagonists in this summer’s shortcomings – Jérôme Boateng, Manuel Neuer, Joshua Kimmich, Mats Hummels, Müller himself – Germany’s failure this summer felt like Bayern’s too. Neuer and Müller also clumsily waded into the Mesut Özil controversy which, as the TV cameras lingering on the under-pressure DfB president Reinhard Grindel and Germany’s team manager Oliver Bierhoff underlined, threatens to have longer-lasting effects than failure on the pitch out in Russia.

Add to this the soreness of the DfB Pokal final loss to new coach Niko Kovac’s Eintracht Frankfurt which ended the last campaign (and boy, were Bayern sore about it) and the thought that the champions swiftly need to turn the page makes its way to the front of the mind. Kovac also has plenty to prove, making a significant step up and not as a choice that inspires unanimous excitement, either.

Yet while the new man might not immediately fire the imagination, he might be just the job for right now. A former Bayern player (and 2003 double winner), Kovac understands how this very particular club works, and feels like a safe pair of hands post-Jupp Heynckes. After last week’s laboured Pokal win at fourth-tier Drochtersen/Assel, Uli Hoeness went to great length to underline that his new man was no consolation prize after Heynckes’ exit.

Already, Kovac has the confidence to make tough decisions, like leaving Robben and Mats Hummels on the bench, along with James Rodríguez and new boy Leon Goretzka, and like playing Müller in midfield, where he led the dance during a first half in which Julian Nagelsmann’s visitors struggled to stay with Bayern.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bayern coach Niko Kovac on the touchline against Hoffenheim. Photograph: Matthias Schrader/AP

The primary aim, though, is for the coach to be solid. Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Benedikt Warmbrunn noted that Kovac, a man who likes to be fresh and sharp on the touchline, had submitted to a rather less flattering rain jacket to keep off the persistent Munich drizzle. “The rain jacket was just a minor feature on this Friday evening,” wrote Warmbrunn. “Yet it was a phenomenon that stood for the big picture. It was a pragmatic decision, typical for Bayern under their new coach.

That, perhaps, was just what they needed after their summer of turbulence. Bayern managed to battle their way through a rocky second half too, when Nagelsmann’s side fought back strongly and equalised through Adam Szalai. It was, to an extent, home comfort. “They played no futuristic football,” continued Warmbrunn. “They did not intoxicate.”

Arjen Robben seals opening-day win for Bayern Munich over Hoffenheim Read more

Robben heartily praised Hoffenheim and Nagelsmann (“They have a great coach – you can tell by the way they play football,” the winger said), though the latter was fuming at the award of Bayern’s penalty that eventually, after some VAR examination and a retake, made it 2-1. “I wouldn’t have given that,” Kovac sympathised, following Franck Ribéry’s vault over Havard Nordveit’s challenge.

Nagelsmann was certainly not let down by his team, having prepared himself to rub shoulders with the bold and the beautiful in Munich, later telling Bild that he had got his eyebrows shaped and make-up done to look his best on the touchline. He wasn’t about to let a rain jacket crease his shirt.

For once, there was a boss on the touchline who might have been too showbiz for Bayern, and it wasn’t Kovac. It’s by evolution, not revolution, that Bayern’s main figureheads will put the summer of 2018 behind them.

Talking points

• The weekend closed with arguably its biggest fixture, as Dortmund took on Leipzig. It was an unusual game, with Ralf Rangnick’s side opening the scoring through Jean-Kévin Augustin after 31 seconds and looking by far the more cohesive unit for long spells. “Leipzig were better than we were,” conceded Lucien Favre. Yet on the back of some fine goalkeeping by Roman Bürki and ruthlessness in front of goal, Dortmund ran out 4-1 winners. “There are many things to correct,” Favre warned, though Marco Reus’s clinching goal, beautifully laid on by Jadon Sancho, suggests they already have his trademark counterattacking down pat.

• Borussia Mönchengladbach were victorious in Saturday’s big game with Bayer Leverkusen. Coach Dieter Hecking’s new 4-3-3 worked a treat as the second half went on, and Fabian Johnson’s goal to seal the game was the move of the weekend.

• Hats off to Hendrik Weydandt who scored 77 seconds into his Bundesliga debut as substitute for Hannover, having spent last season playing for Germania Egestorf/Langreder in the Regionalliga Nord, the fourth tier. It didn’t win all three points, with Theodor Gebre Selassie netting a late Bremen equaliser.

• Nikolai Müller had a better first day than last season. Having ruptured his cruciate ligaments celebrating scoring Hamburg’s winner against Augsburg, he opted for a more modest acknowledgement of his opener in new club Eintracht Frankfurt’s 2-0 win at Freiburg.

• Those who thought the VAR contributed a little too much to the spectacle at the Allianz Arena didn’t see Wolfsburg’s 2-1 win over Schalke. There were two retrospective card changes – Matija Nastasic’s yellow upgraded to a red for the visitors, and home striker Wout Weghorst’s red later swapped for a yellow. Referee Patrick Ittrich was so dizzied that he later showed John Brooks (who scored Wolfsburg’s opener) a red by accident when booking him.