Carlo Ancelotti has insisted that he did not need to force Bayern Munich to undergo 'a revolution' after he succeeded Pep Guardiola as manager.
The Italian spoke exclusively to ESPN's Gabriele Marcotti about the state of the German giants when he took charge at the Allianz Arena last summer, and revealed that he did not need to make widespread changes to the setup imposed by his predecessor.
Guardiola was in charge of Bayern for three seasons before deciding to part ways with the Bundesliga club in favour of a move to Manchester City, and Ancelotti praised the ex-Munich boss for the legacy he had left behind before his departure.
Ancelotti said: "I found a fantastic club, first of all, and a team with good knowledge. I think the experience they had with Guardiola helped them to be strong in possession, to be strong in transition.
"So I found a team with a lot of quality. I didn't want to do a revolution, because the team doesn't need a revolution. I want to follow the line that Guardiola put in the last three years and try to do some changes; maybe to play more vertical, play with possession."
Such is the diversity of the talent available to him at Bayern, Ancelotti also stated that his grasp of multiple languages allowed him to engage with the entire first-team squad and get his points across fully to each member of his side.
.@MrAncelotti: "We now know each other a lot better than in the first half of the season. We will be even stronger as a result." pic.twitter.com/ZUvnS1p5Io
He continued: " (There's) lots of languages! I try to explain the training session in German.
"German is a really difficult language for [Latin people], because the grammar is totally different. I try to explain the training session in German, then I speak in English. With some players I can speak Spanish. And with some players, like [Arturo] Vidal, [Franck] Ribery, Rafinha, [Kingsley] Coman, they can speak Italian. I mix. Every day is a good lesson to improve your language."
The Italian was also quizzed on his side's chances of defending their Bundesliga crown once Germany's top flight gets back underway on January 20 after the enforced winter break.
Bayern lead the table by three points after finally overthrowing surprise package RB Leipzig in mid-December with a 3-0 victory over their title rivals, and Ancelotti explained that he remained confident of picking up a fifth successive league title at the season's end.
He added: "It was an important game for a lot of reasons, because until there, we didn't play so well. Against Leipzig was the first game where we played really well.
"And after that, we played against a strong team that likely did really well until now. And they were in second position. But the game, we played really well, so this gives us more confidence for the future."
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