A lack of any tactical creativity or flexibility may be the root issue of Carlo Ancelotti’s poor time at Bayern Munich, but the problems run much deeper.
In Pep Guardiola’s first few months at Bayern Munich, several low scoring games and narrow victories yielded positive results but a disappointment in fans. Guardiola faced criticism from fans who wondered why he even stepped away from Jupp Heynckes’ style of play, effectively suggesting that he had tried to fix something that was definitely not broken.
As time went by, Guardiola became more and more comfortable with his players and his players become more and more comfortable with him. His final season saw Bayern playing at their best since the semi-final fixtures against Barcelona in 2013. So much fluidity, versatility and variation. Heavy rotation meant that nearly every game saw a different team play, and every player worked wonderfully with their teammates.
Ancelotti’s arrival saw a similar start. A team that dominated tactically became a team steeped in pragmatic simplicity, relying on individual moments of brilliance, so devoid of any tactical nuance. But maybe this was in part due to first season difficulties as well? After all, Guardiola had many issues in his first year in charge. Heynckes came second in all competitions in ‘11-12. These things do happen.
Heynckes had the right idea in the following season, though. The Champions League Final loss to Chelsea can be put down to a number of things. Wasteful attacking, a makeshift defense missing David Alaba who was getting better and better every game or maybe the midfield missing a purely defensive-minded player.
A change of fortunes
Enter Mario Mandzukic, Dante and Javi Martinez – three of the best and most consistent players that Bayern’s Treble winning squad had to offer. After bringing in necessary and adequate depth (plus the added fire of all players in the wake of what happened against Chelsea, most notably Bastian Schweinsteiger and Arjen Robben), what happened in that season after was nothing short of spectacular.
At the very end of his first season, Pep Guardiola took a risk and started the largely inexperienced Danish midfielder Pierre-Emile Højbjerg at right-wingback against Borussia Dortmund in the DFB Pokal final. Three at the back, a fluid front three of Müller, Robben and Götze, it was a taster for what the next season was going to feature and it was a massive step away from how Guardiola had shaped his team before.
Although Højbjerg did not feature very often for Bayern, his involvement was crucial in showing what Guardiola promised to bring to the team: dynamism. More specifically, a willingness to try something different.
A lack of progress and poor transfer decisions
In the short period of time that Ancelotti managed Bayern in ’17-18, there was no hint of improvement or adaptation. Just a mindless and directionless approach that rarely seemed to offer any sense of logic. This is echoed in Bayern’s transfers both in and out.
Players that were brought in featured three new midfielders and a center-back. Out of everyone that arrived, only Niklas Süle and James Rodriguez seemed to make sense – a young and talented center-back and a versatile, attack-minded midfielder who can cover positions out wide as well as centrally.
Corentin Tolisso has struggled to hold down a regular place in Bayern’s starting eleven and, comparing his arrival to Bayern’s previous record signing, Javi Martinez, he has maybe not quite been able to live up to the price tag. There is still time for him to progress and he has shown great improvement.
In the current Bayern line-up, though, he has to face competition from Vidal, Thiago, James, Müller, Martinez as well as Sebastian Rudy. Next season he will have to contend with Leon Goretzka, a nearly identical player, and Renato Sanches, a player with something prove. Initially thought of as a steal for a grand price of nothing, Sebastian Rudy began the season under Ancelotti in great form and was a consistent and reliable presence. Under Heynckes, though, he seems to have failed to maintain that standard — a very peculiar scenario given how everyone else in the team appears to have stepped up.
The Renato Sanches conundrum
As for transfers out, Sanches, who struggled greatly last year — which makes sense given the hands-off approach Ancelotti offered as well as his age combined with a determination to try almost too hard — was shipped off to Swansea to work under Paul Clement, Ancelotti’s understudy. In order to progress in his career, have solid game time and build confidence, Renato Sanches was sent on loan to Swansea.
Bayern have never dealt with Swansea ever. His loan spell, which could have gone well and genuinely aided in his development, was a product of short-sighted favoritism and pragmatic simplicity. Sanches may well have been robbed of his most formative years, and I for one hope that he can recover from his bad form and injuries and show the world why he was bought by Bayern Munich.
Ancelotti’s approach to just about every game was remarkably similar. 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 with no discernible subtleties that would have been found in previous seasons. He managed on autopilot, almost how a lot of people play video games. Delegating to assistant manager, simulating games, essentially coasting along with the results coming from individual moments of brilliance, instead of getting results from a team performance.
It was very much a return to basics. This approach may have been the catalyst towards Robert Lewandowski’s approach to playing: win individual awards, become top scorer and consider yourself a one man army.
Next: Managerial limbo and the not so hidden problems of Bayern Munich - Part 3
This is not just a problem with the manager in charge. The situation of resorting back to basics is echoed very clearly in the senior management, Uli Honess and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge to be specific.