When Thomas Tuchel met Carlo Ancelotti: Tied by more than Chelsea

Much was made of Chelsea’s Thomas Tuchel and his connections to Jurgen Klopp in the buildup to the Liverpool game. Tuchel actually has quite a few of those connections throughout the league.

He is a disciple of Ralf Rangnick which loops in other disciples of course, but he is also well bathed in Pep Guardiola’s ideas and was even pegged by the Spaniard to be his successor at Bayern Munich. But one manager many may not think of as deeply intertwined with Tuchel is his next opposite in the dugout: Carlo Ancelotti.

Chelsea’s Thomas Tuchel and Carlo Ancelotti have a much more intertwined history than meets the eye, passing through most of Europe’s biggest leagues. First of all is the most surface level meeting. They have faced one another six times. Four fixtures between Ancelotti’s Bayern Munich and Tuchel’s Dortmund and another two between their Napoli and Paris Saint-Germain respectively. It is a perfectly balanced record as well with two wins, two draws, and two losses for each.

Let’s go all the way back to the start first though. It all starts with AC Milan. Ancelotti was a player in the famous Arrigo Sacchi side. Hundreds of miles away, Rangnick would eagerly watch videos of that Milan team as he developed his own philosophy. A philosophy, of course, that influenced a plethora of German managers including Tuchel.

Italy wouldn’t be completely gone from the story due to Ancelotti’s time at Napoli. His Napoli side drew Tuchel’s PSG twice in the Champions League as both managers tried to instill their tactics on sides that either wanted something else or needed something else.

PSG is, of course, another big connection. After PSG had been brought under new ownership, they quickly turned to Ancelotti to build their new empire fresh after his Chelsea sacking. Using the likes of new signing Thiago Silva, he would lay the foundations for PSG’s league dominance the past decade. Dominance, of course, that Tuchel was able to use during his own time at the French club.

Germany is where the two met the most directly overall however. Guardiola had wanted new Dortmund manager to succeed him at Bayern Munich but, instead of trying to pry Tuchel away from rivals just a year into his tenure, they turned towards Ancelotti following his Real Madrid success. Though Ancelotti struggled to carry his ideas to German football, he and Tuchel did split results over the season. Two wins for Tuchel and two for Ancelotti, the most notable of which saw Dortmund advance to the DFB Pokal final and the other saw Bayern win the super cup.

Which brings things back around to England. Everton is actually the first connection here. After leaving Dortmund, Tuchel was “open” to the idea of managing Everton. The side was, much as it is now, similar to Dortmund overall. Lots of good pieces to be put together to finally do something as a whole. It actually would have made a lot of sense for Everton and Tuchel as the former wanted a star up and coming manager to take them to new levels and the later was looking for his next step after Dortmund. But apparently Tuchel wasn’t ready to end his sabbatical at the time as Everton hired Sam Allardyce to finish the season. By the time Big Sam was shoved out the door, Tuchel had already taken the PSG job.

Which brings things around neatly to Chelsea. Ancelotti was sacked at the tunnel away to Everton, only to go to PSG and then eventually end up back at Everton. Tuchel, a disciple of a man that used Ancelotti as a key player, made his way through the ranks of German football before hopping on to the empire Ancelotti helped built. Now Tuchel is at another empire Ancelotti once built.

Both Chelsea and Everton are on the ascendency as these two meet for the seventh time at their third unique club in the clash. Both should be highly familiar with one another, just like Tuchel and Klopp. It should be an exciting match with hefty top four implications.