Kompany is recovering at home, and Danks takes Bayern into a Klassiker with Dortmund level on 17 points

Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund have played seven Bundesliga games each this season, and they have identical records: five wins, two draws, 17 points. Bayern are top only on goal difference. Saturday’s Klassiker at the Allianz Arena kicks off at 11pm IST, and Vincent Kompany will not be on the touchline for it.

Kompany collapsed while watching Bayern’s reserve team train on Friday, 23 October. He was treated in hospital for meningeal irritation and discharged on Wednesday, and he is now recovering at home. Aaron Danks, his assistant, takes the team again.

Danks: no big changes

Bayern have won both games Danks has run. They beat SC Freiburg 3-1 away last Sunday and then put six past Magdeburg in the DFB-Pokal on Wednesday, winning 6-1. On Friday he said the plan for Dortmund would not move much. “No big changes, no big differences for us. We will be ready and super competitive,” Danks said.

He also confirmed that nobody at the club is talking football with his manager. “We don’t talk to him about football. We’ve been given clear instructions there,” he said. That is the right call, and it does mean Danks owns whatever happens on Saturday.

Bayern are without Luis Díaz, who has a hamstring injury. Manuel Neuer has a foot problem, and Jonas Urbig has been in goal while he is out, including at Freiburg. Harry Kane, who won the Ballon d’Or in London on Monday, has six Bundesliga goals against Dortmund since he joined Bayern.

Dortmund’s defence is the story

Bayern have scored 25 league goals and conceded six. Dortmund have scored only 12, but they have let in four, and Danks knows what that means. “They’re very good defensively. They concede very few goals,” he said.

Niko Kovač’s side got to 17 points the hard way last weekend. Substitute Maximilian Beier scored ten minutes from time to beat Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0, and on Tuesday Marcel Sabitzer curled in a free-kick in the third minute of stoppage time to beat Werder Bremen 3-2 in the cup. Kovač is without two of his midfielders, Emre Can and Giannis Konstantelias.

The record says Bayern

Neither side has lost a league game this season. Bayern have not lost one since Augsburg won 2-1 at the Allianz Arena on 24 January. One of those runs could end on Saturday.

The last meeting went Bayern’s way, 2-1 in the Supercup in August, and Bayern have usually won this fixture in Munich. My view is that the gap between the two attacks is bigger than the gap in the table. If Dortmund keep Kane quiet for an hour, though, a side that has conceded four goals in seven games can make a draw feel like the more likely result.

More from our Bundesliga coverage