Thomas Muller happy with extra competition

Thomas Muller said that Philippe Coutinho has added to the Bayern Munich squad and that was more important than his own future.

Coutinho has joined the Bundesliga champions on a season-long loan from Barcelona and came off the bench to contribute to his new side’s first victory of the campaign, winning 3-0 away at FC Schalke.

Robert Lewandowski scored a hat-trick to secure the win but after the match, Muller was asked about Coutinho and said his own position in the starting line up is not as important as the success of the club.

He said: “Of course, when Philippe Coutinho is signed – where there’s a new signing those are totally normal headlines that are first about the new signing. But we’ll then see everything that happens in the coming weeks. “And what’s important is that we have a squad that is equal to all its tasks. And I know it’s always a lot of fun to philosophise over the individual players.

“For us as a team, what’s important is that we have a top team every three days and win games, and accordingly it [i.e. the talk] goes away again.” Coutinho replaced Muller in the side that beat Schalke, coming on after 57 minutes.

Having four points from their opening two games of the new Bundesliga season, Bayern play Mainz 05 this weekend and are 1.08 for the win with Die Nullfunfer 26.00 and the draw 10.00.

Bayern have claimed the Bundesliga in the last seven seasons, winning the title last season by two points from Borussia Dortmund. The Bavarians are 1.36 to extend their run with Borussia Dortmund 3.50.