Wolfsburg cannot compete with Bayern Munich yet – Allofs

Wolfsburg sporting director Klaus Allofs has stressed Wolfsburg are not yet at a level where they can challenge Bayern Munich for the Bundesliga title.

Many saw Wolfsburg as Bayern’s biggest rival in the race for the title ahead of the 2015-16 campaign, having finished second last term, but Dieter Hecking’s men have been unable to keep up with the reigning champions so far.

They sit third in the table after 12 games, trailing Pep Guardiola’s men by 13 points, with Borussia Dortmund also eight points ahead of them.

Nevertheless, Hecking is not worried by Wolfsburg’s results until now, even though he has admitted they have room for improvement.

“You always hope to be able to compete with the league leaders, but I think this is not a realistic aim. We already acknowledged that before the season started,” Allofs told Omnisport.

“After our second place last season and our victory in the Super Cup at the beginning of this campaign, some people said Wolfsburg are a real competitor for Bayern Munich, but we already said before we are not ready for this. Our predictions have been confirmed so far and we are not worried about that.

“On the other hand, the gap between Borussia Dortmund and us is too big. The way we are playing at the moment is not what we had been hoping for, but we had a lot of changes within our team. We are not worried, but we know we have to improve.”

Wolfsburg have developed into a force to be reckoned with in recent years after a number of difficult campaigns and Allofs is determined to maintain the club’s status as one of the Bundesliga’s leading outfits.

“Almost three years ago, we were playing against relegation,” he added. “Step by step we were able to improve the team. Almost every single player improved himself and as a result we bridged the gap to the teams above us in the table.

“We achieved a lot last season with our second-placed finish, Champions League qualification and DFB-Pokal win. We must now repeat that maybe three or four times to establish ourselves as a big team and I think we have a team that can do just that.

“We lost big players such as Kevin De Bruyne, Ivan Perisic and Aaron Hunt, but also signed quality players. It takes time for them to gel. That is why things have not been going great yet.”