As probably any Bayern fan in the world right now, I'm not optimistic about situation in our club. Ancelotti is surely one of best managers in world football. He is extremely good with players, and aswell master of knockouts. However probably everything seen this season lacks of any organization, something I wouldn't expect from Carlo. Carlo plays on individual ability of Robben, Ribery, Thiago or Lewandowski. That is not something you do in German club, German clubs always need tactical approach (Heynckes did it best).

We lost in Hoffenheim. We were absolute shit against Anderlecht and Kimmich saved us along with penalty. Lewandowski seems to be negative about our board and some of players (unreasonably at Kimmich for example). He is our best player and we need him, Madrid rumours are probably shit (only club he would leave for is Madrid). Then next is absolute disorganization in midfield and key areas in wings. Along with few weird transfers etc.

We don't have backup for Lewa. If he decides to force transfer we don't have backup. We also unreasonably brought in James (not that I'm not happy he is here) but instead we should just trust Muller, we are German club ffs.

----------Lewandowski-Muller----------
------Ribery-Rudy-Vidal-Robben------
Alaba-Hummels-Boateng-Kimmich
-------------------Neuer--------------------

In this system we have everything we need in our playstyle. Obviously Alaba is main con in defence because of his loss of form. However I believe he can sort it out before winter comes. Hummels and Boateng can help us with long balls from defence (something we can use often). Kimmich is Kimmich, never out of place, and always so consistent. Rudy is closest we have to Kroos (biggest transfer mistake we ever done in our HISTORY). True number 8 who can replace what we really need right now, a real midfield organizer. Vidal is also crucial. He is best defensive midfielder we have (Javi would be nice option too), he is also extremely capable of playing in advanced role. Left Ribery, right Robben. That is something we need for their last true season. They also need to play wide but both should cut-in when they see it is not working (in the end that is Robben's speciality). Lewandowski needs space between defenders and wide wingers will allow him that. Muller is MOST IMPORTANT man in our system, he is also better player than James. He won't be true striker but his usual CF role. We can play 4231 or 3421 in Bundesliga but this is a must for CL.

@Croatian Surprise to see Rudy over Thiago though but I gotta that I kinda like that formation, give a chance for Muller to do what he does best. Also, is it me or James haven't been really impressive for Bayern as of now? I mean, he doesn't seem to have regain his form or anything, he doesn't look as good as when he played for Carlo in Madrid at least.

@Emo, James' first season was probably best individual season of any player in last few years (except CR7 or Messi ofc). James was magnificient but bench done it. He isn't what he is supposed to be by now. I mean he is still classy playmaker, able to find pass whenever he wants, but just doesn't feel the same he was in 2014 (I think it was 2014). Still has time, players usually don't adapt quickly from going from technical La Liga to tactical and physical Bundesliga...

On sidenote, Muller was brilliant today, and we played our best match this season. Kimmich was godly and Lewa atleast seemed to be happy/positive and always in his usual self.

Pretty sure Ancelotti is doing a much better job than what Heynckes did, even with having a bit of an aged squad in some key players.

Uh, Heynckes built a machine out of that Bayern squad. Had the right amount of rotation too. Sacrificed a goal-machine in Gomez for a hard-working forward in Mandzukic to make the system work. Until Ancelotti wins a treble, he is not doing better than Heynckes 3-year tenure.

Heynckes had alot of players in their prime first of all.

Second if you know his history his very much overrated, when he took Bayern the first times in the 90's he had the easiest road in Champions League on paper but his team lost at home vs Red Star from Serbia and he bottled it away and got kicked out...

Third he took Bayern again only to lose the domestic title to Wolfsburg.

Forth he took Bayern again only to lose the title again to Dortmund.

He is only overhyped because he's a german but he was not even capable of securing the domestic domination even with the superior money that he had.

So far Ancelotti has been doing a great job, he failed in his first season to win the Champions League which isn't on him when Vidal was stupid to get a red and even so he took Real to extra time, something that not even Juventus came close to do.

Apparently managers who win two Champions Leagues in two different eras are now 'very much overrated'.

I didn't mention any of Heynckes' previous history with Bayern or any other club. I specifically said his 3-year tenure. Read my points before you comment.

EDIT:: As if Ancelotti doesn't have Vidal, Lewandowski, Neuer, Boateng, Hummels, and Muller in their primes?

Ask around, see how many would say that Heynckes is a better manager than Ancelotti...
I mean Ancelotti 5-0'ed Bayern before he took that same team and was extra time vs Zidanes team...

I stand by my opinion that Heynckes is only popular because hes a local german. Same story when Vidal joined, alot of Bayern fans were "not convinced" by him because of "many reasons" but obviously because he isn't german.

it's really not possible to compare the 2.

I prefer Carlo in a small margin because I've watch more of his football, and I really dont enjoy Bundesliga at all.

But saying Heynckes's overrated, and had an easy road is very wrong IMO.

Back to the topic: Bayern's main squad is aging, And the lack of true competition locally in the last few years have hurt them and Bundesliga in general. I dont see them as motivated as before until the more competitive CL's round. So I dont think those mentioned game is that concerning yet.

Seriously, people care way less about it compare to the raising League 1.

Heynckes' last year was supposed to be just a way to say goodbye but he won us treble. He should stayed. Few more years. You know that maybe Real wouldn't be so dominant right now, that Bundesliga as collective would be better and that Dortmund would be amongst CL semifinalists again.

Ancelotti's Bayern is mega-squad, but it isn't tactically best - and that's what it should be. He doesn't have best squad in the world. He comfortably has second best. He has so much experience he would have to know what to do. Of course he solved Lewandowski's problem (atleast seemingly). Right now all I want for him is to do his season the best he can, if he does good enough we should praise him and be happy 'bout it, if he doesn't then it's time for younger (preferably Nagelsmann - Poch maybe as second option).

Heynckes also was way more convincing for more. He sure did have team on peak form. But saying it's only because of team is apsurd, he was one to play Mandzo, he was one to buy Javi Martinez for club-record fee and play him as CDM.

Also on sidenote, Vidal was playing in Bayer before joining in Juventus, literally everyone who watched him in that time period knew he was right player for Bayern.

Yea he knew it was a perfect time to retire after finally getting the CL title so he created a myth of himself.

But if you actually see how many times he failed in his many times with Bayern it's crystal clear that it's bullshit to talk down someone like Ancelotti after only 1 season in which he actually did a great job and took the champions Real Madrid to extra time, that alone makes him a master of his work comapred to someone like Pep Guardiola that actually made Bayern play and look worse on the pitch even for a casual observer.

There was a topic about last seasons CL prediction and I put my vote on Bayern, they got Real Madrid in the draw too early, it was like a final before the actual final to me.

Heynckes retired because he was already 67 at time (if I remember correctly, too lazy to check). He started managerial career from mid 80's and ended it in 2012. That's bit less than 30 years of managerial career, not to mention he was a player before that. Everyone gets tired.

Also it's not who is better manager, Ancelotti or Heynckes, but who made better Bayern, and that answer is surely Heynckes, because discipline, physical form, tactical preparation was top of the world. Not to mention he would rotate quite often and everyone got a chance to prove himself. Ancelotti lacks that but atleast started doing a little bit of it seemingly this season.

Defeats against Madrid came as result of their absolute dominance (in more than 70%) and tactical/referee faults (about 30%). No realistic Bayern fan expected us to be favorites, and it's shame that both Napoli and Bayern came against strongest team so early, knowing Barca was in quarters too and did basically nothing.

Writing him off isn't a good word for what I'm saying. I'm surely gonna give him atleast this season to prove his experience and class as manager and that should atleast be semifinals which is our realistic expectation (given strenght of PSG, Juventus, Barca, Monaco etc). I'm not writing him off again, I am glad if Carlo continues to work with Bayern, just I don't agree with things he sometimes does (Muller in particular). He maybe doesn't fit German football in exact way he fits Italian. That is his biggest con but I'll be glad he stays if he looks for double and semis of UCL. Anything else would result in Nagelsmann coming in.

Time will tell but I hope you understand that from my perspective, Ancelotti winning both Bundesliga and CL in his first season would have been an amazing result and that details made Bayern lose to Real Madrid, it's a harsh world where the best team is decided by maybe 1 bad situation or judgement, Bayern gave the best fight to Real Madrid.

@Golazo People need to stop being sour about Bayern losing to Real though, beside, they would still have to win against Atletico and against Juventus, not 100% sure they would have won those fixture. Anyway, winning Bundesliga isn't so impressive for Bayern anymore, their only challenger were Leipzig whose form collapsed in the second half of season and BVB who had worse form than in Tuchel first season (they actually nearly fail to get third spot). Also, Ancelotti failed to win the German Cup, wich shouldn't have been so hard either. At the end of the day, team like Bayern or PSG need to compete for CL seriously or else their manager will get into trouble, its sadly part of having no real competition in your own league (not so true anymore with PSG but you get my point). Though I agree its a bit soon to say if Ancelotti time at Bayern has really been dissapointing. :P

@Emo I'm not sour over that but thank you for that remark I wonder where do I sound sour, but it doesn't matter my point is no manager is perfect, Heynckes was not perfect either.

It's not impressive to win Bundesliga anymore? At the same time Heynckes lost it when he also had serious advantage as well, more than once, to Wolfsburg and Dortmund but he finally got to win the CL and somehow Ancelotti is seen as inferior already after 1 season?

It's really not making a case for the bashing of Ancelotti, I mean he did win the league beating their closest rivals 3:0 so the only real challenge is CL but his team played extra time and lost with a player less, it's not even about tactics there, they were simply beaten by a better Real Madrid but they showed the hardest resistance vs Real Madrid compared to the rest.

Let's not forget that Ancelotti is in the mid of a squad transition, Xavi Alonso and Lahm retired and Robben and Ribery are in their final years of top football. Lets not get it mixed up, winning the league is a must for Bayern and they did it with Ancelotti regardless if it was expected or not.

Heynckes had it so easy in the 90's when Liverpool as Champions of England didn't play CL, Ajax was banned and AC Milan got kicked out by Marseille and yet Heynckes embarassed himself losing to Red Star at home and got kicked out, so bad that year was like a walk in the park by all messures and he couldn't do it, he is now seen as some myth manager that everyone else should look up to because of that 1 season where he won the CL, 2013. Bayern won the treble but if it's not impressive to win the league then lets just face it, the point is winning the CL for Bayern like he never made any mistakes...

Lets talk about Ancelotti then, does he really have any problems working as the manager of Bayern? I don't thinks so, it's not that easy to win CL at a new club, even so I actually thought that Bayern could do it since he should know how to beat Real Madrid.

He's the guy that changed Real Madrid's formation to 4-3-3, bought Isco that is amazing, put Zidane to work as the assistant coach, won the domestic cup vs Barcelona and took Real to their 10th CL title, first time that club even came to being close to a final since 2002, beating 5:0, Bayern in the semis, he really does know how to win CL but even so he didn't really put up a show in the domestic title race.

In Bayern he lost then 2 cups, won the league and got eliminated by Zidane in CL, not a perfect record but is there anyone with such?
He's got 2 years on his contract left, we're talking about one of the best managers ever, Bayern wanted him for a good reason, he's not some new uproven guy he's a bigger name in football than Heynckes and that's facts, I dare to say that he is better in Bayern compared to Pep,Klinsmann,Van Gaal.