Bayern Munich have endured a stuttering start to the 2018-19 season, but Robert Lewandowski says the Bundesliga champions are relishing the chance to hunt down Borussia Dortmund.

The start of Niko Kovac's tenure at the Allianz Arena has delivered mixed results, Bayern failing to win in four successive matches after starting the campaign unbeaten in seven.

Uncharacteristic league defeats to Hertha Berlin and Borussia Monchengladbach, plus stalemates against Augsburg, Freiburg and Fortuna Dusseldorf have seen the Bavarian giants slip to fourth.

A 3-2 defeat against Dortmund last month has enabled Lucien Favre's side to open up a seven-point lead at the Bundesliga summit, with Bayern a further two adrift after 13 games.

Lewandowski – who has seven goals from 12 league appearances this term – believes Bayern have turned the corner, though, and says they are looking forward to the challenge of reeling Dortmund in.

"The last few weeks were difficult," he told Bild. "We uncharacteristically dropped points, especially in the final minutes of games that we have normally won. 

"The situation was surprising; after the first few weeks of the season, we thought that things were going as well as in the past few years.

"We weren't vigilant enough. But we're on the right track [again]."

He added: "Sometimes it's not bad at all to attack from the second row! We're now happy to be the hunters. 

"In the past few years, we've always looked behind us. When you see that someone's in front of you — it means that you're more under pressure.

"You want to do it even more then — catch this team. It's easier to attack from behind as a hunter than to look out for attacks from behind when you're first. Especially when you don't have experience."