Guardiola's shadow proved costly for Ancelotti - 7M sport

Guardiola's shadow proved costly for Ancelotti



Posted Friday, September 29, 2017 by Marca.com

Guardiola's shadow proved costly for Ancelotti

Carlo Ancelotti always faced a tough task at Bayern Munich as he arrived at the club in the shadow of Pep Guardiola who inherited a team that had won the treble and it was his task to put his stamp on it.

The plan did not go wrong necessarily as they won three leagues, two cups, a European Super Cup and a World Club Cup but not enough with the Champions League a notable absentee from the list.

Three eliminations at the hands of Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madird put the Guardiola project in doubt.

Bayern turned their attention to Ancelotti following Guardiola's departure as they saw him capable of making a smooth transition that involved not the destruction of the 'tiki-taka' but adapting it to a more direct approach when necessary.

Ancelotti's reputation as a coach who keeps his players happy was also valued as they had a dressing room but even he had trouble with characters like Ribery and Muller, while not mentioning former players that exerted a lot of influence like Matthaus and Effenberg.

"Carlos is in favour of freedom of speech and democracy but we are not being very intelligent if instead of focusing on the pitch we talk about him off it," said Rummenige.

As with Guardiola, the choice of Ancelotti has not worked out as a complete success despite winning the league and two domestic Super Cups, as again the club were looking for and the writing was on the wall with the criticism he received last season after losing to Rostov in the Champions League.

Ancelotti ignored the criticism and concentrated on avoiding injuries with his target of getting to the knock-out stage of the Champions League in good shape but they ended up getting knocked out in the quarter-finals by Real Madrid.

Guardiola failed in that he could not deliver the Champions League and Ancelotti also failed to deliver that and also his football was a disappointment as he did not make them notably more direct with a defined style of play.

The heavy 3-0 loss against Paris Saint-Germain was the final straw on the back of their worst start to a Bundesliga season since 2010-11 with just 13 points from 18 games. Ancelotti is the first coach that Bayern have sacked before December since Heynckes in 1991.

His record is not bad with 42 wins, 9 draws, 9 defeats, 156 goals for, 50 against and Ancelotti is not to blame, or at least he is not the most at fault as their work in the transfer market has left a lot to be desired with fresh talent not coming in. They also had a poor preseason planned and overall it is fair to say that Bayern aren't what th



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