Three talking points: Müller, Schalke's turmoil, Dortmund's misses

Müller as important as ever for Bayern:

In Pep Guardiola's recently-published book, one of the more surprising points is that the Catalan doesn't believe Thomas Müller can play in midfield. Ever.

There are several references to Müller's inability to keep positions or to accurately perform some of Guardiola's nuances in the middle of the park. That's normal because we know, for sure, that Müller is more of a natural attacker.

But Müller isn't an out-and-out centre-forward, either. After leading Germany's line at the World Cup on his own, he was quickly replaced in that position by the experienced Miroslav Klose.

So what roles does Müller actually fulfill? Well, he's a unique player - there aren't many like him in the Bundesliga or across the world. The 25-year-old works at his best playing on the periphery of the game, not tied down to one particular slot but instead to let himself roam whenever he feels the urge to. "A space investigator," the German media branded him.

"I like to surprise opponents," Müller said in an interview broadcast on DW's Kick Off Countdown program last week.

On Saturday, he did precisely that. He roamed; he found space and he scored a hat-trick. Müller has probably scored with every conceivable body part possible, like the one off his knee for the opener in Frankfurt.

But what Müller's second career hat-trick shows us is that he's still an outstandingly effective player. It might not be the ideal football for Pep, but it's worth accommodating him nonetheless.

Is the writing on the wall for Schalke and Di Matteo?

It took Horst Heldt, the club's sporting director, two years before succumbing to pressure from outside to sack coach Jens Keller. This came after the former Schalke youth coach recorded the club's best-ever second half of the season. To be sacked after that performance may have sounded odd to the outsider - but in truth, Schalke were never heading in the right direction.

And so Heldt appointed Roberto Di Matteo as Schalke coach. Relatively inexperienced, despite winning the Champions League as Chelsea boss, the Swiss-born trainer hasn't improved matters. In fact, things look a little bit worse.

A 2-0 defeat at Freiburg came just days after Schalke were pounded 4-2 by Sporting Lisbon. Given the consistency of the teams above them, Schalke's chances of qualifying for the Champions League have been significantly reduced. Di Matteo didn't have the tactical nous to change much in the game, which should be concerning for the Royal Blues.

Schalke aren't exactly co-ordinated to play defensive football. There's no outstanding strength at the back and for recent weeks, the Royal Blues have been fielding midfielders in central defense. So it's no great surprise to see the Gelsenkirchen club struggle.

What's the next step? Sack Di Matteo after two months? That's one option - and probably, overall, it was the wrong choice to bring him in - but what about the long-term future? The buck needs to fall at the feet of Heldt.

Dortmund's scoring problems aren't solved

It was fitting that the goal that sealed Dortmund's win on Sunday came from Christoph Kramer, an opposition player. Dortmund spurend enough chances for two games and were fortunate that Kramer intervened.

Dortmund's conversion rate is woeful. Before the encounter with Borussia Mönchengladbach, Dortmund converted just 6.5% of their shots on goal. That's over 12 shots on goal per every goal scored.

Jürgen Klopp has been forced to grapple with this problem for some time now. In the last two seasons, Dortmund needed five shots per goal. And that was a slight improvement on the championship-winning season of 2012, when the figure was closer to seven .

The departure of Robert Lewandowski to Bayern Munich, the problem seems to have grown. None of Dortmund's replacements have hit the ground-running and the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan continue to pass up several glorious chances each game.

If Dortmund keep playing like they did on Sunday, then they're certain to rise in the table. But the lack of goals must be a worry for Klopp - against Gladbach, Dortmund had 21 shots on goal, eight of them inside the box, and failed to score.

And there's not really an easy problem to solve.