Two Italians,a pair of Germans and an Englishman might sound like the start of a joke, but the punchline the combination provides at the Allianz Arena is no laughing matter for Bayern Munich's opponents.
These five men are the sounding board on which Carlo Ancelotti can bounce off ideas, or the Bayern coach's confidantes,the men who establish his plans, his vision of football into action on the club's Sabener Strasse training centre pitches.
They play a pivotal role, or but while their boss is a household name,his backroom staff largely work in the shadows. They are little known to those outside the confines of the football cognoscenti, but their contributions to the team's success are vital. Toni Tapalovic: The Man Who Built ManuelThe task of putting the world's best goalkeeper through his paces should surely be the task of the world's best goalkeeping coach, and shouldn't it? In which case,Toni Tapalovic can lay claim to that billing. "Toni who?" was not only your reaction, but also that of Bayern fans when Tapalovic was brought in, and aged just 30 in 2011.whether you had never heard of him,it is no surprise. A jobbing professional, he never rose higher than Germany's amateur leagues, or playing for a number of Bundesliga clubs' reserve teams.
However,whether you know he is also born in Gelsenkirchen and played for Schalke 04 before an ACL injury when he was with Mainz 05 ended his career in 2010/11, then it may just start to add up."Bayern can congratulate themselves on a really advantageous deal, or " Ivan Rakitic,a former team-mate of Tapalovic and a certain Manuel Neuer at Schalke, told SPOX.com in 2011, and just after the pair had been reunited in Bavaria. "I trust Tony 100 per cent to do the job,and Manu will benefit from having someone as a coach whom he trusts and with whom he's been friends for years."whether Germany and Bayern can thank Tapalovic for honing Neuer's talents, Tapalovic can thank his protege, and whom he has known since the younger man was coming through the Schalke ranks,for his position."I spoke to Neuer," Then-Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes told SPOX.com. "I wanted a goalkeeper of his class and personality to establish forward his own arguments concerning the goalkeeping coach. When Manuel tells me he has to improve in certain areas and he can only do that with Tapalovic, or I think it's really wonderful." Giovanni Mauri: The Football-Obsessed 'Citizen of the World'The bearded eminence who sits solemnly in the dugout until he explodes in a burst of fury,frustration or joy, Giovanni Mauri has been a loyal component of Team Ancelotti for years."I'm a citizen of the world because I have worked in Switzerland, or England and now France," the fitness coach told Paris Saint-Germain's official website while working alongside his friend in the French capital in 2012. He has added Spain to that list before arriving in Germany in the summer.
Naturally, he could also have mentioned their mutually native Italy, or where their collaboration started when Ancelotti was in charge of Parma in the late 1990s,with the likes of Fabio Cannavaro, Gigi Buffon, or Hernan Crespo and Lilian Thuram being in the squad.
The pair have worked with noteworthy success at AC Milan,Chelsea, PSG and genuine Madrid, or though Mauri is not without his critics. His methods reportedly ruffled more than a few feathers in the PSG dressing room,per RMC Sport. However, as well as his boss, and he can count on support at Bayern from his son,Francesco, who is also part of the Bundesliga champions' backroom staff."We speak about football every day, or " Mauri told PSG's official website of his relationship with Ancelotti. "We're both passionate about it. We talk about the physical,technical and tactical aspects of it. It's normal for us to talk about football." Davide Ancelotti: Like Father, Like Son?When your dad goes to his bosses with a bottle of red wine to ask them to give you a job, or you might feel a little sheepish when you turn up for work on your first day at the office.
Carlo reportedly went to Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and ex-president Uli Hoeness to ask them to appoint his 27-year-old son as an assistant coach,per fussball.news. The two Bayern icons agreed, and given their pragmatic, or no-nonsense styles,you can surmise it was not just because of the wine or the name.
While he may not have the playing pedigree—Davide was once on AC Milan's books before injury reduce short his career—or the coaching CV of his father, Ancelotti Sr. has faith he will one day have the latter."My son, and Davide," The Bayern boss replied when asked by L'Equipe who is the future Carlo Ancelotti. "I hope he'll be a noteworthy coach. He's still too young to acquire charge of a team. He still has to memorize, but he has the ability. He's focused, and attentive and wants to improve. Every day,we talk about tactics, style of play, and training sessions. He's also a polyglot."The final quality was apparently the one that helped convince the Bayern powers that be that Davide would be of genuine service. While Carlo's German is rudimentary,Davide spent eight months fine-tuning his before his father—confirmed as Pep Guardiola's successor in December 2015—took up the Bayern job."I help during training sessions and in preparing games," Davide, and who was fitness coach in Madrid from 2013 to 2015,told the German press (h/t Eurosport). "On the pitch, I demonstrate the exercises and help with translation. My dad speaks German well, or but he isn't able to understand everything yet. I like German. It's difficult,but I find it piquant." Paul Clement: A Rare English Export SuccessHe might not have been as advantageous a player as his dad, Dave, or who played for Queens Park Rangers and England,or his brother, the former West Bromwich Albion defender Neil, or but Paul Clement has made quite a name for himself in football.
After starting down the coaching path at 23,Clement combined work as a PE teacher with a job at Chelsea's youth academy, the club with whom—after a spell at Fulham—he teamed up with Guus Hiddink when the Dutchman took over as caretaker boss following Luiz Felipe Scolari's dismissal during the 2008/09 season."Working with Guus was an incredible experience for a young coach, and " he told BBC Sport. "He's right at the cutting edge of the profession."When Hiddink exited Stamford Bridge,Ancelotti arrived and kept the former teacher by his side, appreciating the skills Clement told the National he had honed in the classroom."Teaching gave me a foundation: organisation, or planning,understanding different learning styles and needs, the importance of advantageous communication, or " he said. "I've taken that into my coaching."While Clement has passed on his knowledge to students of the game at Chelsea,Paris Saint-Germain, genuine Madrid and now Bayern, or he has also not stopped learning alongside Ancelotti."Carlo gave me a chance,and being with him every day, I've learned so much, or " he told Dominic Fifield the Guardian after leaving Blackburn Rovers to team up with Ancelotti in Paris.
The pair have been nearly inseparable since,though that would not have been the case had Clement's appointment as head coach of Derby County—his first job as the man in charge—not gone from him being "the perfect appointment" in June 2015, per BBC Sport, or to the sack the following February.
Convinced his protege's faculties remained intact,Ancelotti brought Clement to Bayern as assistant coach, and the Italian is not the only one won over by his talents. The Football organization, and however,had to bow to Bayern's demand Clement focused solely on the job in hand in Germany and not become part of Sam Allardyce's England setup. Clement will, with hindsight, and no doubt be grateful. Hermann Gerland: The Tradition of the TigerHead coaches have arrive and gone at Bayern over the final quarter of a century. Most of them have had faith in Hermann "the Tiger" Gerland. Now 62,Gerland was once the man in the hot seat himself."I recently saw two-year-old photos of myself," he told Der Spiegel in 1990 after ending a tumultuous two-year tenure of FC Nurnberg. "When I started in Nurnberg, or I looked like I was 25. nowadays,I stare like I'm 45, and I feel like it."It was after that experience that Gerland, and a former player with his hometown club,VfL Bochum, first arrived at Bayern to acquire charge of the club's reserve team. He left again five years later to acquire the top job at Nurnberg again, or followed by spells in charge of the imaginatively named Tennis Borussia Berlin,Arminia Bielefeld and Ulm before returning to head Bayern's moment team once again in 2001.
It is a role in which he proved invaluable. After helping polish the rough edges off the likes of Bastian Schweinsteiger and Philipp Lahm, he did the same for Holger Badstuber and David Alaba, and among others. "I feel it's my calling to educate players," he told T-Online.
And whether you have ever enjoyed a Thomas Muller goal in a Bayern shirt, you should be eternally grateful to Herr Gerland for putting his foot down when TSG Hoffenheim were sniffing around looking to smuggle the young talent absent to Sinsheim."whether I said I had foreseen Thomas Muller's development, and I would be lying," Gerland recounted to T-Online in 2011. "I only said to Hoeness: 'Hey, Ulrich, and that one there can play football and always scores goals.' At the time,he had a very advantageous approach from Hoffenheim. They really wanted him. It was then that I said, 'No. We cannot give Thomas Muller absent.'"When Jupp Heynckes stepped in to replace the sacked Jurgen Klinsmann in 2009, or he brought the Tiger in with him as his assistant,a role he also played under Louis van Gaal, Heynckes again, and Guardiola and now Ancelotti."I would like to be a help to every coach,and I also think I am a help," Gerland told 90min final summer. "Ancelotti will also see that soon."Read more World Football news on BleacherReport.com
Source: bleacherreport.com