Stale Carlo Ancelotti was lacking in intensity and tactical ideas and Bayern Munich need to freshen up

It was January 2017 and, although Bayern Munich seemed to be firing at the top of the Bundesliga, both the players and club officials knew that they just weren’t really firing as a team. Something was off.

Something was slacker, even if it wasn’t yet obvious on the surface. Sure, they were still winning games well and putting together some brilliant football but the growing feeling throughout the club was that was mere muscle memory after the high-intensity highly sophisticated work of Pep Guardiola… and a muscle memory that was gradually fading.

Those at Bayern were surprised by just how low-intensity and laissez-faire Carlo Ancelotti’s work was in contrast to the Catalan, how lacking in deeper tactical ideas and preparation it was. The fear was that would all begin to have an effect.

Those fears have manifested into an all-the-more frustrating reality this season. Bayern have dropped to third in the Bundesliga and, in getting hammered 3-0 by Paris Saint-Germain, have just suffered what the hierarchy consider their most worrying and deflating Champions League defeat since the 4-0 thrashing at Barcelona in 2009.

That has also come about because all of the wider debates about the Italian’s career, that have also manifested themselves more tangibly at Bayern than any previous job. Even Milan - where he got to the Champions League final more times than he finished in the Serie A top two - and Chelsea, where everything so collapsed after a devastating double-winning campaign.

It is just ironic that it is a match in the Champions League that has finished him in what could well be his last true ‘super club’ job, because that was the competition that saw the best of him, that he had the best record in and that naturally so bolstered his status.

While the fact he matched Bob Paisley in winning three European Cups should of course be greatly appreciated, it is no disrespect to say the manner he managed that also pointed to precise reasons why he has also been sacked at Bayern, why his league record of just four domestic titles in almost 20 years at the world’s wealthiest clubs is so underwhelming.

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A manager that dabs at things and facilitates rather than firmly taking command and imposing an overall idea, Ancelotti had the type of personality and experience that meant he could perfectly manage mentalities and egos for intermittent big games and keeping things ticking over.

This is why he was almost perfect for coming into big jobs with big players and getting them to do it in the three or four knock-out games required to win a Champions League… but so mediocre in terms of applying the grander longer-term projects required to really drive league campaigns.

He just didn’t have the relentlessness, the rigour. It is no coincidence that two of those mere four league titles came in the one-horse races of France or Germany, and that two of the biggest domestic upsets in recent years - the victories of Montpellier and Atletico Madrid - came against his PSG and Real Madrid sides. The threat was growing that we might see a third of those upsets this season in Germany.

All of this might be down to the fact that Ancelotti is just a thoroughly normal and nice person, devoid of the manic preciousness of the top managers today, but then Bayern are not a normal club. The level they want to compete at actually demanded the extreme preparation and depth of Guardiola. They wanted their players to be pushed, to be challenged, to be energised - to just be better set up than the opposition.

They used to be. They weren’t any more.

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That contrast is perhaps just as striking as the contrast between Ancelotti’s Champions League record and his domestic record, or that between his first and second seasons at Chelsea from 2009 to 2011.

Bayern so quickly went from one of the most vibrant and fearsome outfits in the game to something so drab and flat. They were just so lacking in shape and sharpness against PSG; easy to get at at the back and toiling to create anything up front.

It was 2009 all over again, and the depths that the club were determined to avoid, all just far too short of the level they expected.

They looked in need of an overhaul and, given the short-termism of Ancelotti’s entire career and fact half of this Bayern side are coming to the end of a cycle, there was also a knowledge that they needed to look elsewhere. Likely to Julian Nagelsmann, whose Hoffenheim already humbled Ancelotti’s team 2-0 this season.

As to where the Italian looks next, that’s harder to say. He has now had many of the top jobs but no longer quite seems at the top level, not when so many of the elite managers engage in the ultra-intense preparation that he just doesn’t engage in.

There is an argument that he could be the ultimate international tournament manager, and there are a number of top-half Premier League jobs that could now be appealing. He is also a safe pair of hands to turn to at time of crisis for the super-clubs.

But that’s also why Bayern are in crisis now and have sacked him. Those super clubs want - and require - much more than that safety. It meant that there was no safety net after Wednesday night in Paris.