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Yesterday, Bayern Munich officially confirmed that they had parted ways with manager Carlo Ancelotti. The decision came only a few months after the former Chelsea and Real Madrid boss had led the German Giants to their fifth consecutive Bundesliga title.
So why did Bayern actually sack Ancelotti? Here we look some of the reasons which led to the drastic decision from one of the best run clubs in world football.
1) Poor results in pre-season; a sign of things to come
The signs of early tension rose in the pre-season. After starting out with a few wins, Bayern only managed to win one of their last seven pre-season games (including the German Super Cup) in normal time. Whilst it might be misleading to read too much into pre-season results, the performances might have been concerning.
Bayern lost 4-0, 2-0, 3-0, 2-0 against AC Milan, Inter Milan, Liverpool and Napoli respectively. Their German Super Cup win against Borussia Dortmund also came via a penalty shoot-out only, after the match had ended 2-2 in normal time.
"Our pre-season hasn't been good but you don't need to worry. When the season starts, we will be there." Ancelotti assured Bayern fans after their penalty shoot-out victory against Borussia Dortmund in the DFL Super Cup.
2) Slow start to the domestic season
13 points out of a possible 18, third in the Bundesliga table, just three points off the top of the table would be considered as an excellent start at any normal club. But Bayern are not any normal club. In fact, this is Bayern's worst start to a domestic season after six games since 2010-11.
That time also they were three points off the top of the table to Borussia Dortmund after six matches and the Jurgen Klopp's side went on to win the title.
Even worse was Bayern's 2-2 draw with Wolfsburg last weekend. It was the first time that the Bundesliga Champions had dropped points after having led by two goals or more since February 2011.
Bayern also lost 2-0 to Hoffenheim, a side which took four points from them in the 2016-17 season.
3) Failure in the Champions League
The biggest criticism of Pep Guardiola's time at the record Bundesliga Champions was his failure to deliver a Champions League title in three years, having taken over the club when they were the Champions League holders.
It was expected that Carlo Ancelotti - a three-time winner of the biggest club competition in Europe, would bring a sixth European title to Bayern's trophy cabinet end the wait.
However, Bayern repeatedly faltered in the Champions League, especially against the better teams. Ancelotti as a coach only suffered nine defeats in his time at Bayern, but incredibly five of those nine came in European competition, which included both legs of the quarter-final tie against his former club Real Madrid. They also lost 1-0 away to Atletico Madrid in the group stages last season.
The 3-0 loss to PSG was the final nail in the coffin. The hopes of winning a European title takes a pummeling with such results and Bayern ultimately cut the rope.
4) Bizarre team selections
The most shocking thing about the PSG game wasn't how easily Bayern surrendered and how comfortable a victory it was for PSG but it was Carlo Ancelotti's team selection. Incredibly, Ancelotti left all three (Robben, Ribery and Coman) of the wingers out and effectively entered the game without any real pace in the wide areas.
This left the full-backs Joshua Kimmich and David Alaba exposed as they had to provide the width and track back to defend against Neymar and Kylian Mbappe. Mats Hummels was also bizarrely amongst the subs while Jerome Boateng wasn't involved in the Matchday Squad at all.
Of course, it wasn't the first time that Ancelotti had made such strange calls. Against Hoffenheim (one of the better teams in Bundesliga), Ancelotti decided to start Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery on the bench with one eye on the Champions League clash against Anderlecht - arguably their easiest group game.
On the other hand Thomas Muller's (a fan favourite) role proved a conundrum Ancelotti failed to fully solve. Muller was a key player in Guardiola's 4-2-3-1 system having looked lethal playing behind Lewandowski. He looked pretty much out of touch though in a wide role in Ancelotti's preferred 4-3-3 system. Hence he was slowly being consigned to the bench.
Thomas Muller has also expressed discontent after being dropped earlier this season, "I don't know exactly which qualities the coach wants to see. But mine seem not to be 100 per cent in demand," he said.
5) Tension in the dressing room
It wasn't a hidden fact that Ancelotti was starting to lose the trust of some of the key players in the dressing room and Bayern President, Uli Hoeness said it in no uncertain terms that it was the main reason behind the sacking of Carlo Ancelotti.
"There were five players against Ancelotti," Hoeness told Westfalenpost.
"It was impossible to get out of that."
As mentioned in the slide before, Muller publicly mentioned his discontent after having dropped by Ancelotti. Mats Hummels questioned the team's tactics after their shock 2-0 defeat against Hoffenheim. Jerome Boateng was being benched by new signing Niklas Sule and veteran Javi Martinez and hence was unhappy.
The startling indication though came after the defeat in Paris, when Arjen Robben refused to back Carlo Ancelotti. When asked after the defeat if he stood by his manager Robben said: “I won’t answer this question. The lineup is the coach’s business. I will say nothing about it. Every word, in this case, would be one too many."
