Bayern München

[Donauwelle]

Ancelotti the cup specialist

They will be back stronger next season though.

Not with Ancelotti. It is not about the results - but when you look e.g. onto the way he handled teams before - and what the strengths of this Bayern team were last season - there seems to be so much washed away. The time in which you just had to pet the star players and told them to just go onto the pitch and play is over and especially if you have a ball possession team you cannot just go for individual actions but have to have that actions build into a matching team frame.

Oh - the league. 4 matches left - 8 points ahead. I hope even Ancelotti cannot mess around with that...

 

[Luftstalag14]

Not with Ancelotti. It is not about the results - but when you look e.g. onto the way he handled teams before - and what the strengths of this Bayern team were last season - there seems to be so much washed away. The time in which you just had to pet the star players and told them to just go onto the pitch and play is over and especially if you have a ball possession team you cannot just go for individual actions but have to have that actions build into a matching team frame.

Oh - the league. 4 matches left - 8 points ahead. I hope even Ancelotti cannot mess around with that...

I understand some of the concerns of the Bayern fans but I think they are exaggerating too much with the doom and gloom sentiment after the CL defeat. By the way Bayern's eliminations from the CL and the Pokal were more accidental as they played well in my opinion but were plagued by injuries, stupid mistakes (such as the one from Javi Martinez), referee errors and bad luck (such as yesterday) more than anything else. The latest strings of defeats and draws Bayern had generally do not reflect the overall level of their play, which I felt was very good, unlike in the first part of the season when I felt Bayern was genuinely underpar, unimpressive and meh. 4-3-3 does not work for you and Ancelotti did change things up and it worked, for the most part.

Yes you guys will need to have a backup for Lewandowski, yes Co-Co has faded out quite a bit and you reliance on Robbery is not good in the long run, but I expect Bayern to splash some serious money this summer to get a few quality players and talent (Bayern board knows their stuff when it comes to talent, despite being a bit stingy). Alsonso will be gone so Sanches and Kimmich will have more playing time next season, the addition of Rudy will help revitalize your midfield as well. Sule will be HUGE, great signing for the next many years to come.

The league is yours. I don't see Leipzig or anything else taking it.

 

[Donauwelle]

I understand some of the concerns of the Bayern fans but I think they are exaggerating too much with the doom and gloom sentiment after the CL defeat. By the way Bayern's eliminations from the CL and the Pokal were more accidental as they played well in my opinion but were plagued by injuries, stupid mistakes (such as the one from Javi Martinez), referee errors and bad luck (such as yesterday) more than anything else. The latest strings of defeats and draws Bayern had generally do not reflect the overall level of their play, which I felt was very good, unlike in the first part of the season when I felt Bayern was genuinely underpar, unimpressive and meh. 4-3-3 does not work for you and Ancelotti did change things up and it worked, for the most part.

Yes you guys will need to have a backup for Lewandowski, yes Co-Co has faded out quite a bit and you reliance on Robbery is not good in the long run, but I expect Bayern to splash some serious money this summer to get a few quality players and talent (Bayern board knows their stuff when it comes to talent, despite being a bit stingy). Alsonso will be gone so Sanches and Kimmich will have more playing time next season, the addition of Rudy will help revitalize your midfield as well. Sule will be HUGE, great signing for the next many years to come.

The league is yours. I don't see Leipzig or anything else taking it.

Oh - it is not about the two defeats. We have the same discussions in the German Bayern forum since weeks or months. OK, it was always told that coming April everything is fine - system is working, no injuries, everybody is fit etc. The single defeats you might be able to put on single mistakes or referee decisions or missed chances etc. -. buth that is not it. The problems were to be seen all season besides the results. In a year a lot that this team made so good - flexibility tactically etc. - is washed away and only the mistakes made are still the same or even worse. Pep might have had the stupid idea to be able to control away matches even if this never worked and castrated the offense - if this would be the only problem...

The backup for Lewy is not the problem if you are able to adjust the system to the other players. We do not need another player on the bench that will not get self confidence by not playing as Lewy usually plays through - and if you do not adjust to the other one that will not be working either. With the discussion about his miss people did not see that we did not have any striker or winger goals in the last seasons in the final stages when playing the 4-3-3 and that he e.g. this season only had 16 goals from open play instead of 26 last season, that he since the winter break only had one goal (after a set-piece) away. Ancelotti has put everything on Lewy - and e.g. forgot to give either him or Robben the situation in which they score best and did not back up Müller who always was the big Cup goalscorer - but from the hanging striker position in which he really functioned great recently and with whom behind Lewandowski scored his only goals from open play since the begin of the season in the league.

Instead we play Alonso on the 6 - let Vidal try to handle playing second striker and trying to be deepest midfielder in the same second - play Thiago on a 10 who we need badly in an 8 with his defensive qualities.

 

[Barcaman]

Carlo can't be blamed for robbery that happened at Burnacow. Had they gone through they'd be favorites to win it.

 

[Yannik]

What Bayern lacks is flexibility. They are tremendously in possession, but if you look at teams such as Madrid, Juventus, Chelsea, Dortmund, Monaco then you see teams able to adjust to their opponent and even give up on game domination to focus on defensive work and counter attacks. Bayern however just has that Plan A). It got slightly better under Carlo than it was under Pep, but it's not at the level where I'd love to see it. Plan A roflstomps everyone small enough, but it lacks against the stronger teams at this point.

 

[Blaugrana Bull]

Nothing got better under Ancelotti. Bayern was way more dominant under Pep and had a coach that could potentially react to everything. With Carlo the opponent knows what is coming and the Italian does not have a clue to change anything about that.
I think Bayern's second leg against Atletico was one of their best performances ever but a penalty miss and one single mistake by Boateng was enough for the most inform Griezmann ever to make them pay for that. Bayern needs to react now to avoid declining.

 

[Raed]

Nothing got better under Ancelotti. Bayern was way more dominant under Pep and had a coach that could potentially react to everything. With Carlo the opponent knows what is coming and the Italian does not have a clue to change anything about that.
I think Bayern's second leg against Atletico was one of their best performances ever but a penalty miss and one single mistake by Boateng was enough for the most inform Griezmann ever to make them pay for that. Bayern needs to react now to avoid declining.

Carlo was a good transition from Pep. Keep in mind the team is old, it is not young.

they need major money and they need a little consistency. Under Pep they were one dimensional, remember they blown out by 3 Spanish sides in the semis, so they predictable too under Pep. So the problem persists, which is that Bayern are too one dimensional, when things go bad, they don't know how to react differently.

They also have to work twice as hard to get top top players. Real and Barca + EPL money have different allure. It was a very difficult for them to get Ribery and now they need another one.

 

[Blaugrana Bull]

I also thought that Ancelotti might have the right tools to perfectly use the groundwork Pep created and convert it into the biggest trophy. I think if a pragmatic like Ancelotti follows after a coach like van Gaal or Pep he has a great chance to be successful.
If a team already has a certain identity and someone like Carlo who is known for good man management and being a cup specialist comes in the new coach is usually able to bring the best out of the team and make them win big. But he has made several mistakes over the course of the season and Bayern never really seemed as dominant as before.

I also disagree about Pep's side being one dimensional. The man is able to change so many things during a game alone with subs, shifting players around, giving them different roles etc. But he made some tactical mistakes in the second tie against Real and in the end of the first tie against Barca and that is why they lost 4:0 and 3:0. So different approaches were possible but he chose the wrong ones.

But nothing is black and white anyway. Carlo won the league and the tie with Real was very close. You need luck in sports to win the biggest games and Bayern will compete again next season.

 

[Donauwelle]

Carlo was a good transition from Pep. Keep in mind the team is old, it is not young.

they need major money and they need a little consistency. Under Pep they were one dimensional, remember they blown out by 3 Spanish sides in the semis, so they predictable too under Pep. So the problem persists, which is that Bayern are too one dimensional, when things go bad, they don't know how to react differently.

They also have to work twice as hard to get top top players. Real and Barca + EPL money have different allure. It was a very difficult for them to get Ribery and now they need another one.

They are predictable in a 4-3-3 - they aren't in a 4-2-3-1. It's interesting to see that Lewy bangs in one goal after the other with Müller as partner behind him this season (and Müller functions in that role, too) and only scored from open play in 3 from 19 matches (and that were when the opposing defense lacked any organisation) since mid of September in all competitions when Müller did not start or was played as a right winger role in this Ancelotti system that does not fit his strengths.

The critic about Pep is that he tried to play on control in the away legs - not just against the Spanish sides but in the other knockout matches before against the likes of Porto, Donezk, United etc. It often backfired as this team cannot control 90 minutes without making the odd mistake but with the 4-3-3 castrates its own attack and away goals are important. We then could turn the matches with a more attacking match in 4-2-3-1 in the own stadium - often with very high results - but that does not work against the top teams. If there is a 0:1 loss in the away leg any goal in the home leg means that you now have to score 3 without conceding any - against teams that have good defenses, sit back and go on the counter attack...

With Pep Bayern was never one dimensional - a lot of different tactics and formations that could be changed in minutes. But this team in my eyes has to go out attacking - and maybe in some matches needs a more defensive 6.

 

[Luftstalag14]

Those who want us to get Adidas, look at this piece of whatever you call it:

They are being equally lazy as Nike, just copying a design of a classic jersey to the last bit of detail and calling it a day. Atrocious.

 

[KingMessi]

They'll get away with it by calling it a retro jersey.

 

[Blaugrana Bull]

I see a Hoeneß influence on those bars.

 

[Total-Football]

I see a Hoeneß influence on those bars.

Triple entendre don't ask me how

 

[Donauwelle]

They'll get away with it by calling it a retro jersey.

It is a retro design form 73/74 - Team with Beckenbauer, Roth, Müller, Hoeneß, Breitner, Maier - and coach Udo Lattek

Alonso Interview about his retiring - with english, spanish and german undertitles

[youtube]t7qDtNdJAlk[/youtube]

 

[KingMessi]

I know that. That's why I wrote what I did.