Bayern Munich defender David Alaba has blamed the club's inconsistent run of form on teams "defending their goal with 10 men in their own box".

The Bavarians were beaten by Wolfsburg and then drew with Schalke before beating Stuttgart last weekend and Alaba outlined the difficulty in facing teams who set out to defend.

"I know we still need to find our rhythm, but it’s not easy when you’re up against a team sat back defending their goal with 10 men in their own box," Alaba told the official Bayern website.

The Austria international admitted Bayern were poor in the 4-1 defeat to Wolfsburg, but is confident they will soon give their fans reason to celebrate again after showing signs of improvement in their last two games.

"We don’t need to say anything more about the Wolfsburg match as we were just poor. We were down to 10 men for much of the game against Schalke and I thought we made up for that really well. And we won at Stuttgart.

"We want to move on up. We’ll prepare well this week and then hopefully give our fans at the Allianz Arena something to shout about against HSV.