Bayern Munich’s new coach Carlo Ancelotti said yesterday he would stick to his predecessor Pep Guardiola’s offensive strategy for the Bundesliga giants, pledging to “try to win every competition”.
“I come after a fantastic manager ... and I will try to follow (him with) good football, and offensive football,” Ancelotti said in his first press conference as head coach of the German champions.
“I’m not here to do a revolution. The job that Guardiola made was fantastic and I would like to follow his style,” stressed Ancelotti, who, like the Spaniard, spoke in German at the beginning of his first press meeting, having taken a language crash course.
Ancelotti has, in fact, a better record in Europe than his predecessor.
The 56-year-old Italian has won the Champions League three times with two different clubs, in 2003 and 2007 with AC Milan, then in 2014 with Real Madrid.
Guardiola lifted the trophy twice with Barcelona, in 2009 and 2011. But, despite leading Bayern to a record fourth consecutive Bundesliga title in April, the Champions League crown eluded the squad during his reign.
Ancelotti said Bayern will “try to win every competition” even if he acknowledged the difficulty, given that “all the top teams start their season to win the Champions League”.
But first he may have to tackle the question of what to do with Mario Goetze, who has endured three unhappy years in Munich, where he has mostly been kept on the bench.
Speculation had been rife that Germany’s World Cup winner was set either to join up with ex-coach Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool or return to former club Dortmund. Ancelotti said he had had a frank conversation with Goetze a month ago, but would not reveal details of the chat. The manager would only say that as long as Goetze is a Bayern player, “I will treat him as a Bayern player”.
While refusing to shut the door to possible transfers while the window is still open until August 31, Ancelotti suggested that there would be few changes to the team.
“The squad is really good, we are not talking with the club about new signings because we are really happy,” he said, before heading out to the pitch for his first training session.
On the eve of the session, Bayern’s sporting director Matthias Sammer announced he was leaving his position after a health scare.Sammer, 48, suffered a blood circulation problem in his brain in April and has since regained full health, but said he no longer had the desire to continue in his role.
Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said the club had offered options including a sabbatical to convince Sammer to stay, but “he told us that for him the best option was to end the chapter at Bayern”.
Sammer’s contract was due to end only in 2018, and colleagues will cover for him until a new sporting director is found, said
Rummenigge.

Lampard strikes but City downed by Kansas
Frank Lampard scored his fourth goal in five games but it was not enough to stop New York City FC from slipping to a 3-1 defeat at Sporting Kansas City in Major League Soccer on Sunday.
Former Chelsea and England star Lampard stroked in a 14th-minute equaliser for City after Brazilian midfielder Benny Feilhaber had given Sporting an early lead after only eight minutes.
But two minutes after Lampard’s goal, Sporting regained the lead when a speculative long-range effort from Colombian midfielder Jimmy Medranda resulted in a goal for the home side.
There appeared to be no danger when Medranda gathered the ball on the edge of the penalty area following a Sporting corner.
City’s defenders granted Medranda far too much time and space however and he was able to uncork a venomous shot towards goal.
The ball kicked up on the playing surface just before Josh Saunders dived to save, but the City goalkeeper will still feel he should have done better as the ball flew past him and into the back of the net. New York rallied but fell 3-1 down early in the second half when they failed to properly clear their lines. After a round of aerial ping-pong, the ball fell to Ike Opara who poked a low shot past Saunders to make it 3-1.
Despite the defeat, New York remain on top of the Eastern Conference with 30 points from 20 games, comfortably on course to finish in the playoff positions. In the Western Conference meanwhile, the win saw Kansas City move up into fifth place in the 10-team division. The top six teams qualify for the postseason. In the day’s other MLS game, the Portland Timbers were held to a 0-0 draw against the New York Red Bulls.

HULK scores, injured in incredible China debut
Record Asian signing HULK scored on his Chinese Super League debut but was carried off injured minutes later as Shanghai SIPG smashed Henan Jianye 5-0 at the weekend.
The muscle-bound Brazilian forward, who moved to Shanghai from Zenit St Petersburg for an eye-watering 55mn euro ($61mn) last month, bundled home a low cross from Chinese international Wu Lei after nine minutes.
However, his joy was short-lived as he was stretchered off in considerable pain 10 minutes later following a meaty challenge from Henan midfielder Feng Zhuoyi on the edge of the box.
The 29-year-old went down clutching his knee and was substituted soon afterwards by Shanghai manager, Sven-Goran Eriksson, the former England coach. “I’m really happy as it’s my first game and it was a great start to get my first goal,” HULK told local media.
“I’m grateful to the fans for their support, and I’m going to the hospital now for a check up, I hope I can play in the next game.”
His absence had little effect on the outcome, however, with HULK’s countryman Elkeson adding a second goal before half time before Wu, Lu Wenjian and Ivorian winger Jean Evrard Kouassi completed the rout in the second half against a side already reduced to 10 men.