Football Season Guide

Bayern Munchen welcome another coach of Champions League pedigree this season after Carlo Ancelotti took over at the Allianz Arena, six months after the club confirmed that he will be replacing Josep Guardiola as the coach for the new season. Bayern continued to enjoy their domestic dominance under Guardiola, winning three Bundesliga titles as well as two DFB Cups, but it was in Europe that the Catalan coach's performance was going to be gauged and Bayern failed to impress after being unable to progress past the semifinal stage of the Champions League in three successive seasons. Bayern have now turned to Ancelotti and with the German champions expected to once again dominate domestically, the Italian coach comes with the express brief to turn Bayern's European dreams into reality. Bayern have had a good summer so far, adding two new players to further strengthen what is already a formidable squad. The champions continued their policy of signing a key player from their closest title rivals as Mats Hummels was signed on from Borussia Dortmund but unlike previous seasons, they have also acceded to the sales of Mario Gotze and Sebastian Rode to Dortmund. Bayern's other major signing in the summer has been Renato Sanches, with the midfielder completing a big money move from Benfica before impressing at the European Championship. Sanches though will miss the opening stages of the campaign after picking up a thigh injury that has ruled him out for at least a month. With regards to departures, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg has also left the club after completing his move to Southampton while Mehdi Benatia has been loaned to Juventus with an option to buy. Ancelotti has been experimenting with his options during the pre-season, where Bayern have managed mixed results, but is not expected to bring in wholesale changes to the system that Bayern played under Guardiola though he has already had to deal with a minor injury crisis even before the season has kicked off with Douglas Costa, Holger Badstuber, Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben and Xabi Alonso all experiencing injury problems during the pre-season. Player fitness will be key for Ancelotti in his first season in charge and if he can prevent the type of wholesale injuries that Guardiola experienced in the last couple of seasons, Bayern fans can look forward to another successful season for the club.