A year ago, Bayern Munich looked unbeatable.

With the exception of one loss against Manchester City in the Champions League in November, the team had not been shut down by any squad in any of its competitions. It wasn't until late January, after a prolonged break that the wheels slowly but surely came off for the team in the Champions League where it eventually succumbed to Lionel Messi's brilliant Barcelona. In fact the team was not particularly sharp in the Bundesliga in the second half either losing five games in 17 tries -- unheard of for a team that won 25 the entire year.

In the German Cup the team needed penalties to get past Bayer Leverkusen in the quarterfinals before losing against Borussia Dortmund in the ensuing round. Meanwhile the Champions League was tougher challenge with the team shut down in its first knockout game against Shakhtar before unloading seven goals in a game. Yet in the quarterfinals, Porto exposed Bayern in a 3-1 win before being undone 6-1 in the rematch.

It all came crashing down in the semis however with Lionel Messi single-handedly shutting down the team in a 3-0 effort in the first leg. A 3-2 win at home did little but help the team's pride return to a level of respectability.

Fast forward to today and Munich once again looks unstoppable, much as it did a year ago.

However there are some reasons to believe that this team might in fact be primed for a higher level of play in the second half.

The team might simply be the best team in the world at this very point with a strong combination of solid defense and unstoppable offense.

Let's start with the backend where Manuel Neuer remains as steady as usual, allowing just three goals in the Bundesliga. In the Champions League he has been perfect with no goals against, and the team is allowing just seven shots against per game, the fourth best tally in the league behind only Real Madrid, Juventus and Manchester United. A year ago, the team was the best in that category, but it was allowing more shots per game at 7.2.

The offense in Europe is on fire, leading all teams with an average of 24.5 shots per game, up from 17.2 a game a year ago when it was second to Real Madrid.

Of course there is only a sample size of two games to go on to date (Bayern has eight goals in that span), but the team has a lot more going for it than the stats suggest.

A year ago shutting down Bayern Munich was rather straight forward. Park the bus and wait for a quick counter. Despite possessing great speed on the flanks, the team was constantly at the mercy of Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery's health. The former chipped in quite a bit throughout the season, but the latter continues to be a problem. Without them, the team lacked true width. In the two games against Barcelona, Thiago Alcantara, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Philipp Lahm and Juan Bernat lined up as wingers. Not exactly the kind of people that can provide offensive fire power on the flanks.

But this season the team has two players making a huge difference in the stead of Robben and Ribery - Douglas Costa and Kingsley Coman. Both players are tremendous dribblers with dashing speed. While Coman is no Robben when it comes to finishing, his passing is incisive and has been crucial to providing the two forwards Robert Lewandowski and Thomas Mueller with terrific service. Costa has been arguably the MVP thus far this season and undeniably the best transfer of the summer by any team. He already has five assists in the Bundesliga this season in just seven games and has a solid shot.

Those two players make a world of difference, but the team also has tremendous depth in the middle. Xabi Alonso was a workhorse a year ago, but now he is getting more time to rest thanks to the emergence of Joshua Kimmich who has been solid to start the year. Throw in Sebastian Rode and Pep Guardiola can rotate at will. That just scratches the surface when considering the players available in the middle. This team has depth like few teams can hope to have. Just ask Real Madrid and Barcelona how it feels to lose a few players in its starting XI. Those teams have struggled to cope. Bayern has not and should be ready to go deep. Right now there is no better team in the world.

Will they remain the same come April and May?