Look at her performance in the Champions League semi-final. Manchester against Real Madrid, it was the running and fitness of Pepe Guardiola’s players, combined with the team’s impressive football, that overshadowed everyone.

The team, very close to winning the treble, has played 50 high-profile games in domestic and international competition, but its players look set to be at their peak by June.

Of course it this is mainly due to the superior scientific support of his coach and, above all, due to the specialty, which, according to the latest football rules, is considered the most important. at the corresponding technical price This performance coach, who in the last three years has become more and more famous in world football. This is the one who, together with the coach and fitness coach, is called upon to make a plan at the beginning of the season, outlining the training cycle, and solve the dilemma: high performance, i.e. good performance from the start and inevitably a lot of muscle injuries during the season, or a gradual improvement in results aimed at preventing and controlling the number of muscle and ligament injuries? This is perhaps the biggest “headache” for the technical staff when it starts every year, because if not given due attention, it often costs both the team itself and its members.

Along the way, of course, there is the possibility of a combination of poor performance with muscle injuries, so things are much worse.

Now it has become a given that in modern football we are not looking for a “wizard”, a “top ten” with a long accurate cross, but players who are able to adapt to a fast dynamic style of play.

How is the strategy drawn up?

The AEK champion answered the first part of the dilemma this year in Greece. A fitness-based team that had high-intensity workouts but had more muscle injuries than any other team, and key players such as Araujo, Zuber, Eliasson, Gacinovic and Mohammadi were walking out of the operating room.

The second part is answered by City and Mr. Carles Planchar, who, as a results analysis coach, draws up the team’s game strategy. What exactly does the 57-year-old Catalan, with whom Guardiola has been working since 2007, do?

He creates tension throughout the year, provides a thorough analysis of the results after the end of the match, providing coaching staff and players with information about their strengths and weaknesses. At the same time, it analyzes game data based on the planning made by the technical team, which is divided into a weekly training cycle and four weekly cycles related to a month. It also provides GPS fitness feedback detailed for each player as well as for the team as a whole, deciding with the rest of the staff which parameters will work more or less.

The Citizens have certainly had injuries this season, especially Erling Haaland, who was out for two weeks at the end of March, or De Bruyne shortly before the semi-finals against Real Madrid. .

Of course, it is worth noting that Haaland, who suffered several muscle injuries in Dortmund, missed 16 games, suffered a groin injury at City.

There were no recovery delays or relapses, however, and according to official Premier League statistics, this was the team with the fewest muscle injuries.

“I don’t know what he did in Dortmund, but we are looking after him 24 hours a day. We have incredible time behind it every second of the day. Today, with such a hectic racing schedule every three to four days, we have to take care of everything, following the instructions of the performance coach. He works so much time in the training center, much more than on the field. Today in modern football, players train more behind the scenes than on the pitch,” said Pepe Guardiola a month ago when asked about the situation with the Norwegian.

This issue bothered Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool a few years ago when his most important players were sidelined for an extended period of time. Tdecreased significantly since the beginning of 2021 with the arrival of Dr. Andreas Schlumberger to the Reds.. The 56-year-old scientist worked with Klopp for four years in Dortmund, worked for all the major teams in Germany, as well as the national football association. A serious cruciform injury to Dutch international defender Van Dijk in October 2020 and his methodical rehabilitation allayed initial fears that he might no longer play football. This was the strongest proof of the important role played by this position in the technical team.

Entering the Istanbul Champions League grand final between City and Inter, it should not be taken for granted that the English team will have the same superiority as Real Madrid in the semi-finals in this area. And this despite the fact that Inter more or less adheres to the same tactics as its rival in terms of physical condition.

Both teams started their matches not very well, but gradually improved their performance and managed to keep the best form right before the match, conscientiously following the coaches’ scoring plan.

Unknown role in Greece

In our country, despite the fact that the title of performance coach in recent years is often found in Super League 1 teams, in practice it does not exist in the full sense of the word, as in many other countries, except for England, Italy, Germany and MLS. The state does not yet have a person who will process the data and give appropriate instructions to the coach. The latter still has the first and last word in preparation planning. Most coaches are centralized and want to control the volume and intensity of their training, but the teams themselves did not understand until recently how important the presence of a fitness manager was in their competitive development. So it is understandable that they cannot appreciate – especially when economic reasons are also a brake – the existing need for the presence of a more specialized person who will analyze the data of football players.