How Carlo Ancelotti's Bayern Munich Match Up to Pep Guardiola's

Carlo Ancelotti's start at Bayern Munich has been impressive. Since succeeding the Manchester City-bound Pep Guardiola in July, the Italian tactician has won each of his eight competitive games so far, with an aggregate score of 27-1.

Under Guardiola, Bayern won a record 25th Bundesliga title—their 26th German top-flight triumph overall—a full 10 points clear of Borussia Dortmund in second last term.

Five weeks into the new domestic season, and the Bavarians are once again proving to be the pace-setters, with a three-point cushion on—you guessed it—Dortmund.

The more things change, the more they stay the same—at least in Germany's top division.

The nucleus of players is the same. Robert Lewandowski led the Bundesliga scoring charts last season, notching 30 goals, and he has found the target five times already in this league campaign. Flagship signings Renato Sanches and Mats Hummels, meanwhile, have missed a combined 449 Bundesliga minutes already as they wrestle with form and injury problems.

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"The team was already well set," Ancelotti recently told French news agency RMC Sport. "There wasn't a lot to change. Guardiola had done some very good work. I think...we have changed things a little, but the team was already ready last season."

To listen to Ancelotti, you would think that the transition from Guardiola to the Italian had been barely noticeable. Perusing the league standings and the personnel outlined above, it would be easy to agree.

However, scratch just below the surface, and it is evident that the three-time UEFA Champions League-winning coach has built a team that is already a different animal to the one that lit up the Allianz Arena under the Catalan last season.

Lewandowski aside, one of the most palpable differences between Ancelotti's Bayern and Guardiola's has been in team selection. Ancelotti seems to trust experience—Paolo Maldini was his captain, aged 38, when the pair won the Champions League with AC Milan at Liverpool's expense in Athens in 2007—and this has spilled into his brief Bavarian tenure so far.

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In 2015/16, Guardiola's most trusted wingers were Douglas Costa and Kingsley Coman, who were 25 and 19, respectively, last season. With 15 assists between them, no player managed more Bundesliga assists for Bayern than either of the pair the fans collectively nicknamed CoCo.

While it is true both Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben struggled with injury in the previous campaign, it is difficult to imagine the duo, aged 33 and 32, respectively, would've found their way back into the starting XI had Guardiola still been at the helm.

Bayern played Manchester City in a pre-season friendly in July—winning 1-0—and Ribery was not exactly excited for the reunion with the Catalan. "He is a young coach," the former France international was reported as saying to Bild (via Sport 1). "He lacks experience! Sometimes he talks too much. Football is very simple."

Fast-forward to late September, and Costa and Coman have watched on from the sidelines as Ribery has scored two goals in five games—the same total he managed in 13 Bundesliga outings last year.

Ribery even said he would "eat grass" for the new coach this summer. "I finally feel faith again under Ancelotti," he told Kicker (via football.co.uk). "It just comes down to things like faith, respect and closeness, and that helps me give not just 100 per cent but 150 per cent. ... I need people like him, Jupp Heynckes or Ottmar Hitzfeld. Ancelotti knows how to manage his players. I'm pleased he is here because he's just the right man for us."

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Robben scored on his return to the team recently, capping off Wednesday's 3-0 win at home to Hertha Berlin, and while he may reflect on the fact he has one goal for 25 minutes played this season in comparison to four goals in 1,101 last, it is not only the evergreen contingent at Bayern who are thriving.

Joshua Kimmich was thrust into central defence last term with Jerome Boateng and others injured. A clean sheet in the 0-0 draw with Dortmund in March did not spare Kimmich a public ticking off from then-coach Guardiola about his positioning, even though he was playing an unfamiliar role.

Under Ancelotti, Kimmich is playing farther up the pitch, and his freedom to express himself in the final third has resulted in four goals in his past four competitive games for the club.

It is not just Ancelotti's relaxed style that is bringing the best out of the likes of Ribery and Kimmich, although Juventus midfielder Sami Khedira—who won the Champions League under Ancelotti with Real Madrid in 2014—once said, per Spox.com: "The door to his office is always open. ... I have rarely experienced 25 players that are virtually never mad at their coach."

The culture has changed in deepest Bavaria, and so have the tactics. Part of why Guardiola preferred Costa and Coman out wide is because they are happy to hug the touchline and send balls into the box for Lewandowski and his like to capitalise upon.

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Indeed, Guardiola once substituted Thierry Henry when the pair were at Barcelona for drifting inside, despite the fact the forward's positional indiscretion resulted in a goal, which he scored. Ancelotti prefers his full-backs to be the ones getting the deliveries into the danger area, with the wingers helping the forwards by offering another target to aim at.

"This team is already very good," Ancelotti said. "I like the way they control games. I would just like them to play more vertically. I would like to see the full-backs cross more. Guardiola preferred to see wingers. ... I want to use that type of player to cross but also to get on the end of crosses. I want more players in the box."

The fact there have been 12 different scorers in his first eight games suggests the tactic is working. Where Guardiola lost the DFL-Supercup in 2015-16, Ancelotti won it this time around. Guardiola's Bayern were not top of the Bundesliga until Week 5 last term. Ancelotti's have been there from the off this.

The real acid test arrives on Wednesday, when Bayern take on Atletico Madrid in the Champions League. The Spanish club edged Bayern in the semi-finals of the competition last year. If the Bavarians win, it would become increasingly difficult to disagree with Ribery's contention the recent switch in coach has been a change for the better.