Former Bayern Munich manager Ottmar Hitzfeld believes Carlo Ancelotti will be a fine choice to replace Pep Guardiola next season.
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Bayern are set to confirm after Saturday’s game against Hannover that Guardiola will not be renewing his contract and will leave the club at the end of the current campaign.
Ancelotti is understood to be in negotiations with Bayern over a three-year contract with some reports in Germany he has already made a verbal agreement, and Hitzfeld is confident he will continue the good work laid down by Guardiola.
Hitzfeld said: “Ancelotti would be a great fit at FC Bayern. He has been successful everywhere, has won the Champions League three times. At this highest level it’s important that players know he can do it. And it’s also important for the public image. A Bayern coach has to have a high reputation.”
Bayern head to Hanover on Saturday for their final game of 2015 with a five-point lead in the table, but with Guardiola’s Bavarian giants admitting fatigue is a factor.
Bayern are missing injured stars Franck Ribery, Mario Gotze, Juan Bernat and David Alaba for their final match before the month-long winter break starts Sunday.
Having struggled to a 2-0 league win over Ingolstadt last Saturday, Bayern laboured to a 1-0 German Cup win over Darmstadt on Tuesday to book their quarter-final place. It kept alive their dreams of winning the treble of Champions League, Bundesliga and cup titles this season.
Forward Thomas Muller admitted the Darmstadt win “was not a Gala performance” while captain Philipp Lahm says the Bayern squad has been running low on energy for weeks.
“The players’ condition isn’t so great, because we’ve played a lot of games and have had few opportunities for turnover in recent weeks,” said Lahm. “Of course, we’re looking forward to the winter break and we’re finding it a bit hard at the moment.”
Elsewhere, second-placed Borussia Dortmund, the league’s top scorers with 46 goals compared to Bayern’s 45, take on Cologne today with the hosts winless in their last five home games.
Gabon international Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has scored 18 goals in 16 league games so far this season having scored 29 Bundesliga goals in the 2015 calender year.
Eintracht Frankfurt, whose coach Armin Veh this week received the dreaded vote of confidence, meet Werder Bremen at the Waldstadion. Meanwhile, Augsburg travel to Hamburg needing just a point to be sure of ending the year in a position of safety.