Franck Ribery has labelled Carlo Ancelotti as a champion in all respects and hailed the positive atmosphere the Italian has created at Bayern Munich.
Ancelotti replaced Pep Guardiola as head coach at the Allianz Arena in the close-season and led Bayern to DFL-Superup glory against Borussia Dortmund, before starting their DFB-Pokal and Bundesliga campaigns with 5-0 and 6-0 thrashings of Carl Zeiss Jena and Werder Bremen respectively.
France winger Ribery criticised Guardiola s approach when speaking about the Manchester United boss in July, telling Bild: He lacks experience. Sometimes he talks too much. Football is very simple.
However, Ribery believes Ancelotti, who as a coach has won league titles in England, Spain, France and Italy as well as claiming three Champions League crowns, has created a strong bond between the coaching team and playing staff already.
Carlo Ancelotti is a chilled, accessible guy. He loves his players, that s what we realise, he told Goal. He is looking for contact, he laughs with us, he asks us how we are every day. This relationship is important.
Don t get me wrong, we are not kids anymore, we are experienced and we respect the coach. But you need this special relationship with the coach.
It s important you can have fun together. If you spend so much time with each other you can t talk all the time only about football.
Ancelotti is positive all the time. I ve never heard a player who criticised him. To have a good team and good players is the one thing. To have a good close relationship is the other thing.
Ancelotti is a champion in all respects. Otherwise it would be impossible to create such a harmonious atmosphere. That s how you are successful together.
Ribery endured an injury-hit 2015-16 campaign and in his absence his compatriot Kingsley Coman has become influential for club and country.
And Ribery praised the 20-year-old s impact at Bayern thus far, adding: For Kingsley it s good I play for Bayern as well. He is a good guy, who made a great job until now.
With the 33-year-old acting as a role model for Coman, Ribery reflected that his idol growing up was former AC Milan and Bayern star Jean-Pierre Papin.
When I was young I liked Jean-Pierre Papin, he said. He was a special guy, who scored great goals in his career.
