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“The troubles always fly in squadrons”said Jacques Chirac, former President of the Republic. The sentence should be translated into Spanish and read to Real Madrid supporters, who after having piled up success and happiness in recent years, have found a taste for bitterness in recent months. The integration of Kylian Mbappé does not go as planned, some players complain about their status (Rodrygo) or their use (Bellingham, Valverde), the results disappoint both in La Liga and in the Champions League, and the quality game is in free fall.
And to all this, we obviously add the injuries which are accumulating and which greatly affect the starting eleven (Courtois, Carvajal, Militao, Alaba, Rodrygo to name a few). The results of this massacre since the start of the season? A total of 25 injuries, for 17 players affected, and currently 9 on the flank. Any club would be impacted by such a contingent of absentees. But this uncontrolled stunt shines the spotlight on physical preparation, previously praised and now under fire.
The media The Athletic has thus collected several pieces of information, coming from internal and anonymous sources, working within Casa Blanca, which highlights strong tensions within the staff led by Carlo Ancelotti. And it’s Antonio Pintus who gets his due. He whose methods and precepts have been put forward to explain the success of Real Madrid in recent years, he who was to remake Kylian Mbappé into a physical machine, is now singled out by part of the locker room and the staff.
Pintus criticized
His methods, in fact, would be considered old-fashioned by several players. Internally, some regret that Pintus does not question itself, and in particular dissociates itself from the problems of player recovery. All this while he became “head of performance” this summer, with a better contract, and above all a privileged relationship with President Florentino Pérez, which also makes people cringe. Within the staff, there are many disagreements about the physical intensity put in by the players. The data shows that Real Madrid is the 19th team (out of 20) in the number of kilometers covered per match. But is this really significant, since Real has the majority of possession of the ball in each match? Some members of the staff prefer to highlight another stat, which concerns high-intensity races, which are much better. And Pintus is obviously not helping to resolve this problem, he who prefers to work individually with each player according to their preferences.
And he is also criticized for putting himself forward too much, even though the work is not that intense. The Athletic takes the example of an individual training session with Kylian Mbappé, during the previous international break, upon returning from his famous days of rest with the Stockholm episode. A photo of Mbappé working with Pintus was posted by Real Madrid. However, a source explains that that day, the session had been very light and that the photo had been taken during one of Mbappé’s rare moments of racing. A communication move more than real in-depth work therefore.
On Pintus’ side, we defend ourselves by arguing that the injuries are mainly due to Real Madrid’s hellish schedule and the lack of recovery time. Which also explains why some criticize him for not taking responsibility on this subject. All these tensions over the preparation of the team, the importance and analysis of data and the feelings of the players come to light since the results do not follow. But it cannot be ruled out that an overhaul of the organization chart will be implemented soon to resolve these problems.
