An unprecedented season: “They are ‘dead’, LaLiga will be won by the substitutes”

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Injuries, the pandemic and a rowdy campaign they have given more prominence than ever to spare men. Eleven voices debate in MARCA about the situation

ANDl coronavirus, the concentration of parties, stress and lack of time for an ideal recovery is causing the 2020-2021 season to be atypical.

A very complicated campaign for the big clubs that, despite the losses, continue to fight for titles. Atlético, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Seville LaLiga will be played in a very tight final, while Barça can lift the Copa del Rey and Madrid the Champions in May.

“Physically we are at the limit and we cannot do foolish things,” he said. Zidane after the Classic. You have reason to think about it. Your team is the one that lowers the most (fifty) has suffered (The 19 absences of Hazard, the 17 of Carvajal and the 14 of Ramos stand out above the rest).

Zidane and Sergio Ramos’ injury: “No one is to blame …”

“We are living an unprecedented year. That is why it is so important to plan the squads at the beginning of the course. There cannot be much difference between the one who plays and the one who does not play so much. It is clear that you cannot have two ‘Modric’ or two ‘Kroos’, but you need spare parts to save you, “he says Miguel Angel Portugal, who remembers that there are no budgetary surprises because “the richest four take the first four positions and below, the same.”

Zidane: “The team is always there and wants more”

“Valladolid cannot buy at Papuan, but Seville can not buy from Haaland. Levante, perhaps the best surprise, with a low budget is having a great season, but the last three are usually the three with the worst budgets. When you build a team, you stick to the budget to pay the players, you have to know the market well and correctly complete your squad with substitutes who can stand up in decisive moments, which there will be, “he insists.

Oscar Miñambres He was one of those substitutes who ended up being important in the white box. He competed 16 games in the 2002-03 season where the team would end up winning LaLiga.

“They gave me confidence at a time when the club was suffering injuries, although not as many as now. They are key dates to pull from the quarry, as now happens with Arribas and Chust. Madrid, like the rest, are dead. It will be the substitutes who win LaLiga or another title, “recalls the youth squad, that that campaign managed to consolidate.

More fleeting was the passage of Jose Manuel Meca, who managed to give three points in 1999-2000 to a team that won the Champions League. “I had minutes thanks to the fact that the seasons are sometimes long due to injuries. Del Bosque knew me from the quarry and he already made me debut in the first call against Celta. Then I went 0-0 in Valladolid and did the goal. of victory. I fulfilled a dream and helped with three points, “he recalls.

“It is an opportunity for everyone: for those who play less, those who have to defend themselves, for those at home who can go up to the first team … In the end, very few players enter the first team because they surpass the rest in quality. They go up due to crisis, injuries, to give refreshments or because something does not work. I had minutes in Madrid like that, “he recalls Borja Fernández, who adds that “you no longer really know who is the starter or substitute, Zidane for example puts those who are available and that’s it.” Of course, according to his criteria, Madrid is not as dead as some think: “He is going to hold out, Modric is being doubted that at 35 he plays everything and runs like never before. His physical deployment is brutal. There is a template to resist until the end”.

At the neighbor’s house, in the wanda, they don’t have all of them with them. “Atleti has the best wardrobe, especially in midfield, but the least is changing. In football things do not happen as one imagines them. You think that you will be able to give this player rest there and at the end Circumstances lead you to something else, “says the former colchonero Abel Resino, who believes that Madrid is suffering more for the spinal cord and that “Odegaard could have contributed a lot if he had stayed because he would have had minutes for sure.”

Simeone: “There are players with 25 goals and others with 5, there is the difference”

The coach remembers that currently “There are teams that do not even have to complete the bench” and what now “the substitutes are more important than before, because there were fewer games and the coach used to shoot more of them”.

Something that he has not been able to do Koeman in Barcelona. “In the end, the substitutes resolve, they win the titles and at Barça this can happen with Mingueza or Araújo. With Piqué out, they have shown their face. Just like Nacho and Militao in Madrid,” he says Carles rexach, who in his time had to give minutes to players like Christanval or Andersson in the face of so much loss: “It is time to pull from the quarry, substitutes and men who are worth everything, as now at Barça Sergi Robertothe second most affected by Barça with 20 casualties ahead of Piqué (17), Coutinho (17) and Umtiti (10) and only surpassed by Ansu Fati (37)– and before Zuviría or Juan Carlos“.

The latter remembers it well. “Every day they put me in a place and asked me for something different and I adapted. They made me a little dizzy (laughs), but I adapted. Before there was less information than now. When you played against foreign teams especially, you trusted someone of the club that could have seen them something and had followed them because in addition Cruyff was very focused on his own, almost that we played the same whoever the rival was. It only included nuances. Right now they have all kinds of information. Another thing that has changed is that, with the five changes, you can even change the system like in American football. If you have 20 good players, the game is changed by the one who enters the end with quality and freshness“, he points out Juan Carlos.

With 5 changes it is not worth

In order to Alvaro Molinos, one of our physical trainers exported to the best leagues, it is necessary to continue improving in preparation: “The inclusion of the five changes has improved the situation, but it is not enough. We must improve economic investment in recovery areas, try to expand those templates. The great ones already do hydrotherapy sessions, cryotherapy, exercises such as going for a run, stationary bike or swimming pool, contrast baths, supplementation, compression stockings … all this makes the recovery of footballers better by 1% and that is already a lot of. Although the current situation has been late, because it is necessary to take more care of the players. But all this is affecting more psychologically. ”

In that matter she is an expert Lorraine Cos. “It should be noted that the role does not define the player and, although everyone wants to start, their duty is to be available to help the team when they need it. Whatever role it is. The one who is prepared to help from outside , will be prepared to help from within. It is something for which not all footballers are ready, for that reason the mental strength of each one and knowing how to wait for their moment will be decisive “, says the sports psychologist, who believes that the The mood of the usual substitutes depends largely on the coach. On the other hand, “the substitute implies respecting the decision of the technician and maintaining an attitude of constant improvement. It implies accepting your sport and preparing to take advantage of every moment“.

A golden alternate

When talking about luxury parts, it is difficult not to remember Manu Sarabia, who scored 22 goals off the bench. “Many do not know it, but it is more difficult to offer a good result entering from the outside than playing from the beginning. It is difficult to connect, although now they even have a physical trainer in the band. Before we did what we could and sometimes we did not even warm up well because we were distracted with the game itself, then you entered and after two races you noticed it, “recalls the attacker, who thinks that Sevilla and Atlético they have the most balanced templates. A vision that shares half Portugal.

The best goals of Manu Sarabia

“Simeone says that game by game, but one thing is to go game by game to win and another is to plan to regulate efforts. I don’t know if Atleti’s pothole is eventual, I don’t know if Madrid has carried out this planning or has been weighing as the games are coming in. From the outside, what you see the people on the bench are responding in the four teams, although where perhaps they are doing a little worse now is in Atleti because they are not sustaining the intensity. Sevilla has gone from less to more and is fantastically regulating the efforts, “he adds.

“It is not necessary to differentiate between holders and substitutes”

The fault of that great performance of the Andalusian team is Julen lopetegui. “I am not talking about starters or substitutes, I am talking about the team. The matches and the objectives are achieved by the teams. And these are usually made up of 25 footballers who are sometimes required to play at the start and others leave later. They are just as important, despite that sometimes the focus is placed on those who leave at the beginning. But many times, most of them, those who continue after the work that their colleagues have started are definitive, ” answered the coach to MARK this Saturday at a press conference on the matter.

Julen Lopetegui: “I’m not talking about starters or substitutes, they have the same importance”

And he insists: “That is why I would not limit it to starters or substitutes, but to the word team because it is the reality that demanding competitions such as we have had or may have others who play several. But this also happens even for clubs that only compete in one championship.“.

Sarabia, whose son Eder is fighting to go up to Second with Andorra, is also on Julen’s side: “Lopetegui is managing the efforts well and that makes internal competition grow, they have reached the final stretch in good time. In Atleti there are players who do not know if they are starters like Correa, Hermoso or Joao Félix and Madrid It has much merit, Valverde It seemed that he had 50 games playing as a right back. It is all very open. Whoever has a larger staff and better administers it will win. ”

Zidane explains the position of Fede Valverde

From the possibility of having stars like him, who always offered results coming off the bench, It will depend on whether one or the other big ends up lifting the trophy domestic.

THIS IS THE FIGHT FOR LALIGA:

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