Bayern stronger now than in summer, says boss Ancelotti

‘I think the second half of the campaign will be better than the first’

By his own standards, Carlo Ancelotti has not had a spectacular start at Bayern Munich. In his 20-year managerial career, the Italian is well travelled, and has managed and played for some of Europe’s biggest clubs.
His impressive resume boasts coaching Juventus and AC Milan in his native Italy, Chelsea in the Premier League, Paris Saint-Germain in French Ligue 1, Real Madrid in Spanish La Liga and now with Bayern Munich, the last four years’ German champions.
However, the 57-year-old Ancelotti, who took over from Pep Guardiola, has not had a smooth reign so far at Bayern, with the Germans struggling for consistency in the Bundesliga.
Just before the winter break, they did cruise to a 3-0 home victory over title rivals RB Leipzig in their last match of 2016, opening up a three-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga.
But Bayern have not hit their peak this season, like they usually do. They also finished second to Atletico Madrid in their Champions League group.
But Ancelotti is hoping a week-long training camp in Doha will help Bayern to get back to his best. There are just ten days to go before Bayern’s first competitive game of 2017 against SC Freiburg, and the coach believes his squad is well-prepared.
“We’re stronger than in the summer. We know each other better after six months working together. That’s why I think the second half of the campaign will be better than the first,” said Ancelotti, after his team’s last training session at the Aspire Zone, yesterday.
“Our expectations are to play better than we did in the first half of the season. We want to be up there until the end. We have three important competitions and we want to do well in all those.”
Doha has been second home for the Germans, having opted to train at Aspire in the last few years. Ancelotti was full of praise for his players for making use of the excellent facilities on offer.
“The week has been very good – we’ve trained with real intensity. Our confidence is high. I am very pleased with the approach of the team. The weather has helped us a lot. You can’t train with this sort of workload when it’s freezing,” he said.
Manuel Neuer was missing in action yesterday at training. The goalkeeper had flown to Zurich on Monday for the FIFA awards, where he was once again voted into the FIFA FIFPro World XI for the fourth year in a row.
Ancelloti showered praise on Neuer. “Everyone is really pleased for Manu. He is the best keeper in the world. He always concentrates and helps the team to be better. His attitude towards training makes him the best,” said Ancelotti.
The Bayern coach also dismissed any immediate threat of Chinese Super League clubs prising his best players away from Bavaria. The Chinese clubs have been attracting footballers playing in Europe, offering them huge wages, which has concerned the European clubs.
Bayern’s star striker Robert Lewandowski also had interest from Far East before he committed to a new deal with the Bundesliga champions. But Ancelotti was not worried about his players following the likes of Oscar, Carlos Tevez, Axel Witsel, and John Obi Mikel in moving to China.
“It’s true that a lot of players are going to China at the moment,” he said.
“But, for the moment, European clubs are safe because the best competitions and most competitive football are in Europe.
“Players don’t just play for the money, but also to be at the top and play the biggest games in the world. For this reason, European clubs are safe in the future,” he added.
On the expansion to 48 teams from 2026 World Cup onward, Ancelotti preferred to wait and watch, hoping it would not lead to playing more matches in what is already a packed schedule.  
“In general, I’m against more matches because the calendar is already so full. But FIFA is saying there will be no extra games in the World Cup, so let’s wait and see what happens,” he said.
Ancelotti also insisted Holger Badstuber will not be sold, hours before the Schalke signed the defender on loan for the second half of the 2016-17 season.
The German centre-back played only 28 minutes since October. Badstuber has only made 40 league appearances over the last four and a half seasons through a combination of injury and falling out of favour at the club.
Badstuber’s contract with Bayern is coming to an end in June and reports suggest he has extended his contract with Bayern until 2018 before agreeing the loan move.
“I said if he decided to leave because he wanted to play we can deal with it for six months,” Ancelotti said before the loan move was announced. “We can speak about this with him. There is no chance he will be sold. The idea of the club is to renew the contract. If he wants to go to play, it will be to go on loan.”