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 Bayern team.

Ancelotti has said he will not aim to make any grand changes, telling reporters earlier this month (h/t Goal‘s Chris Myson): “I think my friend Guardiola has done some great work in the last few years. I have to take into consideration the characteristics of the players, but I am not here to do a revolution. The job Guardiola did here was fantastic, and I would like to follow this style.”

“The style I know very well that Bayern Munich want to play attacking football. I love to play attacking football, I have a fantastic squad and I am really happy with this,” he continued. “I don’t think the style of play is going to change a lot from the last year. The players are more or less the same, and the system will be too.”

Guardiola made more or less the same pledge in his first Bayern press conference in 2013, but he was always expected to apply his own signature. Ancelotti is a coach less married to any one particular philosophy, and his flexibility has been crucial to his success over the years.

Bayern have only had a few weeks to train under Ancelotti, but given that it isn’t his intent to change very much, the time is ripe to test their readiness for the upcoming campaign. And there are three tough tests that await.

The first, Milan, will be a special one for Ancelotti. The 57-year-old spent the final five years of his playing career with the Rossoneri and became their manager just under a decade later. Ancelotti coached Milan from 2001-2009, winning Serie A, the Coppa Italia and, most famously, the 2003 and 2007 Champions League finals.

Milan have lost their way recently and are certainly no longer the side that conquered Europe twice in four years, but they have some talented, young players in their squad and at least will be a good first hurdle.

Bayern will then face Inter on Saturday, the other Milanese side having finished fourth in Serie A last season and three places above their derby rivals.

Finally, the Real match will be the perfect test for Bayern—another former Ancelotti side and one he won the Champions League with. The reigning Champions of Europe will be an especially tough task, but in preseason, winning and losing doesn’t matter so much—gauging progress does.

In that regard, the USA trip is just right for Bayern as they face an increasing gradient of difficulty culminating in Europe’s best side.

By the end of it all, Ancelotti should have a good understanding of where his team stand and what must be done in the remaining 11 days before their competitive opener.

In that match on August 14, Bayern will take on a hungry Borussia Dortmund side that finished runners-up in the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal last season. It’s a competition Bayern have failed to win in their last three attempts, with two of these going in Dortmund’s favor, so Ancelotti will be keen to begin his tenure with a win.

But before the Superpokal, Bayern will have to pass their tests in the United States. Their performance will be a good early indicator of how ready they are for the upcoming campaign.

 

@Mr_Bundesliga

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