Bayern Munich boss Carlo Ancelotti has thanked the club’s former boss Pep Guardiola for providing him with a fantastic team.
The Italian was speaking after watching his team get a 6-0 win over Werder Bremen in the opening game of the 2016-17 Bundesliga season. Bayern are overwhelming favourites to win the title even after undergoing a managerial change that has seen the arrival of Ancelotti. The club may have lost a Champions League winning coach in the form of Guardiola, but they have brought in a manager who has won this title with two different teams.
Ancelotti will bring a different approach to management at the Allianz Arena, but the players are almost similar compared to last season. The club has not made massive investments into the squad realising that they already have a fantastic group of players. Even though the club has spent € 70 million on playersRenato Sanches and Mats Hummels, they have been able to recoup much of the fee through the sales of Mario Götze and Sebastian Rode. Ancelotti has confirmed that he does not want to change the style of play too much just because this is a new regime. Instead, he wants to continue with the approach taken by Guardiola but with a few tweaks.
“I’ve said before the team has fantastic qualities from the Guardiola era, especially the control and ball possession. I do want to play more vertically but I don’t want to change much. We were focussed and played with intensity. Luckily we scored early and controlled the game Of course I am happy. But there’s always something to improve and do better. We played well today but we have to work day by day,” said Ancelotti after the game. Robert Lewandowski scored a hat-trick to start his season in the best possible way.