USA Tour a Chance to Gauge Bayern Munich’s Readiness for 2016-17 Under Ancelotti

Preseason tours often get a bad rap, but Bayern Munich’s trip to the United States should have some real positives associated with it.

The Bavarian giants touched down in Chicago on Monday and play their first of three friendlies on Wednesday night against AC Milan. On Saturday, Bayern will face Inter Milan in Charlotte, North Carolina, and they will head north to the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to take on Real Madrid on August 3.

The three prestige pre-season friendlies will not have any direct bearing on how the regular 2016-17 campaign goes but will serve a purpose, especially for Carlo Ancelotti’s side.

Whereas many other teams have played under the same trainer for a few years and would be better off having a long summer break to physically and mentally prepare for the next season, Bayern at this point are probably best off with a bit more practice—even if it means traveling some 4,500 miles from Munich to Chicago.

As an incoming coach, Ancelotti is still getting used to his squad, and his players are in the process of becoming familiar with their new trainer. Developing an understanding is extremely important for team chemistry and the one thing that was lacking during Pep Guardiola’s first season in Munich.

Bayern, coming off a treble-winning 2012-13 campaign, did well against ordinary teams in the Bundesliga but looked a decidedly lesser side in the bigger Champions League tests, and they were ultimately put to the sword in a 5-0 aggregate loss in the semi-finals. Incidentally, this came against Ancelotti’s Real Madrid.

Guardiola was known as a “visionary,” whose goals were a bit more elusive than the average, and he had no qualms completely scrapping the model Jupp Heynckes had left prior to his arrival. And, indeed, the former Barcelona coach spent most of his three-year tenure trying to find the right formula for his …

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