Actual Madrid’s inner tensions: 25 accidents, issues over working stats and divisive Pintus

Actual Madrid thrashed Osasuna 4-0 final weekend however the recreation summed up their misfortunes this season.

Sure, it received Madrid again to profitable methods after their third defeat of the season just a few days earlier in opposition to AC Milan, and this was essential given they solely misplaced two in the entire of the 2023-24 marketing campaign.

However in that victory in opposition to Osasuna, Rodrygo, Eder Militao and Lucas Vazquez had been all injured, deepening a worrying disaster of personnel. Madrid now have 9 gamers unavailable due to harm.

Militao tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) for the second time in two seasons, and Rodrygo and Vazquez will miss round a month with muscle accidents. Proper-back Dani Carvajal and promising centre-back Joan Martinez have additionally suffered ACL accidents this time period — and the identical occurred to goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and David Alaba final 12 months, in addition to Militao.

Seventeen gamers have been injured this season, generally greater than as soon as.

These accidents have triggered friction inside the Madrid dressing room. Tensions have emerged inside Carlo Ancelotti’s backroom workers, together with over the crew’s bodily preparation. Amongst different issues, The Athletic has realized:

• Bodily coach Antonio Pintus has develop into a divisive determine behind the scenes, with a few of his approaches thought of to be old style
• Some within the dressing room aren’t happy by the media consideration he has garnered in current seasons
• There’s disagreement inside the teaching workers over the significance of how far Madrid’s gamers are working in video games
• Assistant coach and head of set items Francesco Mauri has displayed temperamental behaviour on the touchline and behind the scenes
• Sources near Pintus blame Madrid’s harm issues on a number of elements, together with the membership’s intense schedule.

The folks working at Actual Madrid, or near those that work for the membership, who spoke to The Athletic for this piece did so on situation of anonymity to guard their jobs or relationships. Actual Madrid had been contacted for remark.

Right here, we clarify the inner divisions behind the scenes.

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Ancelotti is with out 9 injured gamers: Alaba, Martinez, Carvajal, youth centre-back Jacobo Ramon, Militao, Courtois, Aurelien Tchouameni, Vazquez and Rodrygo. Madrid’s gamers have suffered 25 separate accidents within the first three months of the season.

Gamers have continued to play regardless of discomfort. That was the case with Tchouameni, who had a longstanding foot harm earlier than his newest absence with an ankle drawback. Jude Bellingham has skilled points along with his left shoulder since final season.

The harm disaster has led to doubts about Pintus within the dressing room, as Spanish outlet Relevo first reported.

Pintus is an Italian health coach who labored for golf equipment together with Chelsea, Juventus and Inter Milan earlier than arriving at Actual Madrid in 2016. His first spell on the membership lasted till 2019 and he re-joined in 2021 when Ancelotti returned. Madrid president Florentino Perez referred to as him to provide him the job the second time round.

Media studies — together with from The Athletic — recurrently spotlight Pintus as a major determine.

Throughout Madrid’s pre-season coaching camp in 2023, Bellingham advised Actual Madrid TV: “Pintus likes to kill us… however sure, I like him. He’s an amazing man”. Pintus has recurrently used particular masks to report and analyse his gamers’ oxygen and carbon dioxide ranges, personalising their coaching programmes accordingly. On their tour of america this 12 months, The Athletic reported how he had been collaborating with NASA to assist astronauts on their missions.

From this summer time, Pintus’ title modified from first-team health coach to move of efficiency. That promotion got here with an improved contract and adopted curiosity within the Italian from elsewhere.

However Pintus’ relationship with Ancelotti has develop into strained in current months. Some inside the dressing room say one of many principal causes for that is Pintus not taking duty for key selections — together with the restoration of injured gamers.

Pintus’ bodily trainers and the remainder of Ancelotti’s teaching workers disagree on the crew’s bodily depth in video games. Impartial knowledge seen by The Athletic suggests they’re nineteenth of 20 in La Liga this season for distance lined per 90 minutes as a crew. One of many causes behind this can be that they usually get pleasure from extra possession than their opponents, so the ball is doing the working for them.

However Ancelotti and others assume that Madrid’s gamers aren’t working as a lot as final season and that they’ve to extend their distance lined in kilometres — one thing the membership’s administrators have highlighted to the squad. The workers disagree amongst themselves how essential that is, nevertheless, with some claiming that crucial metric is distance lined at most depth.

To offer an instance of how the 2 can differ, knowledge seen by The Athletic from the 4-0 win in opposition to Osasuna exhibits Madrid’s total distance lined was the second lowest of the league season, however they recorded their second-highest distance at a excessive depth.

Some level to an absence of bodily work outdoors of video games. They provide the instance of Kylian Mbappe’s current journey to Sweden after he was not referred to as as much as the France squad for the October worldwide break attributable to health issues over a current thigh harm.

Whereas Mbappe was away, he agreed with Pintus to do some low-intensity workout routines. Pintus then referred to as Mbappe to Madrid’s Valdebebas coaching floor a day earlier than the membership’s different internationals had been attributable to return. The membership posted images of that session, though in keeping with one supply, the ahead solely ran for a brief interval.

Individuals accustomed to the surroundings describe Pintus as a coach who adapts bodily work to the desire of particular person gamers, however that generally this isn’t very intense. Some gamers really feel comfy with him, however some key figures within the crew assume extra common work is required. A number of the workout routines he provides the gamers are additionally thought of old style by different folks concerned in participant preparation.

Others who’re near Pintus’ pondering say the extraordinary schedule and the dearth of a correct pre-season can assist clarify the harm issues. They level out that Girona had 12 first-team accidents at one level in October.

Individuals accustomed to the surroundings additionally say Pintus seems to have develop into distanced from the remainder of the teaching workers and doesn’t appear to wish to share a lot details about his work, which makes it tough to coordinate with the crew.

Madrid’s bodily crew consists of Italian Giuseppe Bellistri, Frenchman Sebastien Devillaz, who screens the gamers’ metrics, and readaptation coach Jose Carlos Parrales. Ancelotti determined to maneuver his son-in-law Mino Fulco from the position of nutritionist and assistant to efficiency supervisor to attempt to enhance the reference to the remainder of the workers — however there stays a way of distrust.

A few of these near the dressing room don’t recognize Pintus’ public prominence, feeling he seems primarily in a optimistic mild however doesn’t take the identical duty when there are issues. A number of folks stated they’re additionally cautious of his shut relationship with Perez, the membership president. One one who works for a Actual Madrid first-team participant defined this to The Athletic by saying: “He’s a buddy of Florentino’s — he’s like his proper arm.” Pintus himself is sad with leaks from inside the dressing room.

Individuals accustomed to the dressing room surroundings say Pintus is distant however well mannered with Ancelotti and no person within the dressing room questions the pinnacle coach’s want to maintain issues civil. Ancelotti has insisted to his workers that they’ve to remain calm on the bench. These near Pintus say there aren’t any points between him and Ancelotti.

Carlo’s son and assistant coach Davide can also be praised for the way he manages these conditions. Within the final coaching session open to the media earlier than the Osasuna win, Carlo and Pintus could possibly be seen in fluid dialogue whereas they put gamers by way of their paces.

A senior Madrid supply harassed to The Athletic that Pintus has the membership’s assist — however the debate over his strategies isn’t the one signal of heightened tensions inside the teaching workers in current weeks.

Accidents to youth gamers Martinez and Ramon when coaching with the primary crew have been a trigger for concern. Sources concerned with the crew’s bodily preparation say they’re much less developed than these within the senior squad. The rise in accidents has pressured the membership to maneuver health coach Ruben Cipriano from the youth setup to the primary crew to work alongside Parrales.

In response to a number of sources, the assistant coach and head of set items Francesco Mauri has additionally been displaying temperamental behaviour — on the touchline and behind the scenes.

Francesco is the son of Carlo Ancelotti’s former longstanding bodily coach, Giovanni Mauri, and has risen to develop into an important a part of the primary crew alongside Davide Ancelotti. Each Davide and Francesco are extremely rated as coaches inside the Madrid setup.

They’ve been mates since childhood and have been tasked with main first-team coaching classes for the previous 4 years. The previous took cost of set items final season, an space through which Madrid excelled at each ends of the pitch as they gained a La Liga and Champions League double.

However in current weeks, Francesco’s behaviour has upset a number of coaches.

Somebody who works with a Actual Madrid first-team participant advised The Athletic: “Francesco has stated a number of issues which have upset Carlo rather a lot, however as he’s like his father as a result of he has grown up with Davide, there have been no main issues.

“There have been issues he has stated and finished on the bench that if another person does, they might be kicked off the bench.”

He has develop into more and more vocal on the touchline throughout video games. Within the closing levels of Madrid’s 3-2 win in opposition to Alaves in September, he left for the dressing room after members of the opposition bench complained about his behaviour, which they thought of extreme.

Sources near Mauri say this adopted a heated dialogue after Endrick averted a pink card. They are saying Mauri acknowledges he’s a temperamental particular person and has at instances gone too far, however that that is a part of a character he creates to counter the calmer instincts of the Ancelottis.

However there was extra friction between Davide and Mauri than beforehand. Mauri has began a course to develop into a head coach and it’s unclear whether or not they’ll proceed working collectively after Madrid. Davide and Mauri have aspirations to be a first-team coach, with the latter within the prospect of sooner or later managing in Main League Soccer.

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So long as gamers proceed to undergo accidents and Ancelotti’s squad turns into extra depleted, there shall be intense scrutiny on the membership’s medical and health departments.

This isn’t the primary time, both. In November final 12 months, Madrid eliminated Niko Mihic from his place as head of medical providers, regardless of Perez’s belief in him. Mounting harm issues — and dissatisfaction among the many remainder of the workers and squad along with his strategies — led to that call, and Felipe Segura changed him. Mihic, thought of by these across the first crew squad to be extraordinarily near the president, stays concerned on the membership.

Throughout the dressing room, there’s a feeling that additional adjustments shall be made to the organisational construction at Madrid.

Within the meantime, there isn’t any signal that tensions behind the scenes will ease quickly.

(High images: Getty Photographs; design: Eamonn Dalton)