Bayern hope Doha trip will revitalise the team

Doha, Qatar: Bayern Munich were six points off the pace when they came to Doha for their annual winter training camp last season and the trip acted as a catalyst of change as the Bavarians finished two points ahead of Borussia Dortmund to emerge as the champions.

This time they are just four points behind league leaders RB Leipzig and Bayern Sporting Director Hasan Salihamidzic was confident that the players would benefit from the trip to Doha, which has now become a winter tradition.

The German champions are in the Qatari capital for the 10th time and former Bayern player Salihamidzic was expecting them to take full use of the excellent facilities at Aspire Academy.

"We'll do everything we can during the training camp to prepare well and to give ourselves the best shot of going full throttle from the very first game," Salihamidzic said. 

He had re-emphasised even before the side left for Doha that the players would be met with "very, very good conditions" at their disposal at the Aspire Academy for Sports Excellence, helping the team work on some fine-tuning before the second half of the campaign.

Last year, the winter camp in Doha served as a foundation for a strong second half of the season, which saw the German record champions win the league-cup double for the twelfth time in the club's history. 

Coach Hans-Dieter Flick was confident that Bayern can do the same thing again this season.

“The squad is ready for the rest of the season. I can see the players are working hard and want to be successful. They’re very focused. I agree Leipzig have a strong squad. In fact, all teams are very well balanced in the Bundesliga this time, something we haven’t had for a long time.

“I think our players are getting stronger — you saw it in the last two games. We’ve some good young players coming up and I’m optimistic about the season and also 2020,” he said.

With three wins on the bounce to end 2019, the side from Bavaria have kept pace with the leaders and currently lie third, leading Manuel Neuer to announce after the last home game that the side "will continue to attack in the second half of the season" and "leapfrog (Leipzig and Gladbach) into first place."