Carlo Ancelotti has been dismissed as coach of Bayern Munich following Wednesday’s 3-0 loss to Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA 🛡 Champions League. One loss does not a coaching job cost, not normally at least. So where else did it go 🛡 wrong for the Italian tactician?
bundesliga takes a closer look…
Bayern never lose during Oktoberfest, everyone knows that. Munich's annual beer-drinking bonanza 🛡 will wrap up early next week, and — so far — the Bavarian city's biggest team have not tasted defeat 🛡 in the Bundesliga during the 2024 edition.
But not even seven points from three games was enough to save Carlo Ancelotti 🛡 from becoming the first Bayern coach to lose his job during the world-famous festivities.
The coup de grace to the Italian’s 🛡 reign was delivered by one of his former clubs, Paris Saint-Germain, with their 3-0 win in the French capital Bayern's 🛡 heaviest group-stage defeat in the UEFA Champions League. Still, you couldn't say Ancelotti’s departure has come as a surprise, nor 🛡 is it just the result of 90 minutes to forget in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower.
Third in the Bundesliga 🛡 table, three points off top spot after six games, would be considered a rampaging start to the season at most 🛡 clubs. Bayern, of course, are not most clubs. In 2010/11, they were also three points off table-topping Borussia Dortmund after 🛡 six matches, and Jürgen Klopp’s side went on to claim the title. Clearly, the Bayern bosses don’t want a repeat.
A 🛡 2-0 defeat to Hoffenheim — Ancelotti's sole reverse in the league this term — showed not only how much the 🛡 Sinsheim outfit have progressed, but also how Bayern have not, while last weekend's 2-2 draw with Wolfsburg was the first 🛡 time the record Bundesliga champions had dropped points after taking a two-goal lead since February 2011.
Watch: Wolfsburg peg back Bayern 🛡 in Ancelotti's Bundesliga finale
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Tactical troubles
Still, a poor run of form — relatively speaking — 🛡 and an embarrassing European defeat don’t explain everything. Bayern are not in the habit of flicking the switch and jettisoning 🛡 their coach on something as temporary as that. No, the seeds of Ancelotti’s downfall were sown some time ago.
Quiet leadership: 🛡 winning hearts, minds and matches is the title of Ancelotti’s vaunted book on how to get the best out of 🛡 those under you, but though only his predecessor, Pep Guardiola, had a better points-per-game average at Bayern, the former AC 🛡 Milan, Chelsea and Real Madrid boss has never quite managed to convince fans, pundits and perhaps even his players that 🛡 he could improve upon and extend his mightily impressive track record.
Though he added the Bundesliga title — an annual requirement 🛡 for any Bayern boss who wants to stay in his job longer than a season — last term, in Europe, 🛡 the shortcomings of his team and tactics were apparent. The only manager to have won the Champions League on three 🛡 separate occasions, Ancelotti was clearly brought in with the idea being he add a sixth European title to Bayern’s trophy 🛡 cabinet.
His squad reached the last eight of the competition last season before losing out to eventual winners Real. No shame 🛡 in that, you may think, particularly given Arsenal had been slain 10-2 on aggregate en route. Still, the quality of 🛡 that Arsenal side is measured by the fact they are in the UEFA Europa League this term, while the campaign 🛡 was not always as glorious — remember defeat in Rostov? The manner of the loss at PSG — a club 🛡 so often criticised by Uli Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge — was the straw the broke the camel’s back.
It was in 🛡 fact just after that loss in Russia last season — in early December, Matchday 13 at Mainz — that Ancelotti 🛡 abandoned his 4-3-3 formation to revert to the 4-2-3-1 strategy that had served Guardiola so well. Finally, at the OPEL 🛡 Arena, it looked like the Bayern of old, precisely because it was just like the Bayern of old, but it 🛡 returned despite Ancelotti rather than because of him, a default choice when his own had not worked out.
Misplaced trust?
Thomas Müller 🛡 underpinned the 3-1 win, and looked far more comfortable in a position behind Robert Lewandowski rather than in the advanced, 🛡 wide role Ancelotti had used him in previously, and which had given him so little opportunity to use his talents. 🛡 In fact, Müller’s role proved a conundrum Ancelotti failed to fully solve, often resigning the Bayern icon to using his 🛡 famed ability to exploit space in finding the prime spot on the substitutes’ bench. Such is Müller’s standing with the 🛡 fans and within the club itself, when results did not go Ancelotti’s way, his decision to keep the Germany international 🛡 on the sidelines was questioned all the more quickly.
Müller was not the only one, though. This season, while Mats Hummels 🛡 appeared first-choice, the 2014 FIFA World Cup winner has played alongside Jerome Boateng, Niklas Süle and Javi Martinez in central 🛡 defence. Not because of turnover, but because Ancelotti never seemed sure of his best XI.
Unusually for a coach with proven 🛡 man-management skills, Ancelotti seemed to overestimate his squad. “He trusts us to make our own decisions out on the pitch,” 🛡 rejoiced Manuel Neuer of Ancelotti in the early days of his new boss’ reign. Perhaps he shouldn’t have been quite 🛡 so indulgent, particularly when they started making bad ones. The collective switching off at Hoffenheim that allowed a ballboy to 🛡 catch them off guard and Sven Ulreich’s curious decision to use just one hand to try and keep out Maximilian 🛡 Arnold’s free-kick are just the most recent, high-profile mis-steps.
Watch: Lahm and Alonso call time on their careers
Ancelotti could easily — 🛡 and quite rightly — argue that Neuer would not have made that mistake, while the retirements of Philipp Lahm and 🛡 Xabi Alonso were always going to leave a gulf that it would take time to fill. Add to that the 🛡 loss of Ancelotti's trusted assistant Paul Clement last season, and the Fates have not been as kind as they could 🛡 have been to the ex-Bayern boss.
But Ancelotti also had a duty to find solutions to those problems, particularly the leadership 🛡 deficit within the dressing-room created by the Lahm-Alonso Auf Wiedersehens. He may also complain that he was not given the 🛡 support he needed from above, but the Bayern bosses have been considerate in one way: at least Ancelotti still has 🛡 time to don the lederhosen again, head to the south of Munich, and drown his sorrows before considering the next 🛡 challenge into which he should invest his talents.
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