At the end of the season for Real Madrid, it is time for reflection in the white club, at all levels. And one of the main thoughts in the heads that decide within the white club focuses on the physical preparation of the team, after a course in which the numerous injuries have hampered the team's performance and, to a large extent, have prevented fighting with more weapons for titles. However, Madrid was a semifinalist in the Champions League and had options to win the League until the final moment of the last day, but in the club they do not ignore the situation that has been lived in the infirmary and there is a main indicated: Grégory Dupont.
The French physical trainer arrived in Madrid in 2019 from France, world champion in Russia 2018, where Deschamps' team demonstrated undoubted physical superiority over other rivals. Antonio Pintus went to Inter (Zidane lost confidence in him after he stayed at Madrid after the final in Kiev, when the Marseillais left; he hoped the Italian would do the same, like his other collaborators) and Zizou pulled Dupont, known in his country as 'The Scientist' for his meticulous and studious character.
His first season in white, 2019-20, ended with a high approval: Madrid started with many injuries, then stabilized and he finished the season after confinement in an enviable state that made it possible to chain ten victories in a row to lift the league title. However, his second year at Madrid has been one of suspense: 62 injuries, most of them muscular, to which are added 10 COVID-19 infections that have prevented Zidane pull most of his men in many moments of the course. It has not been unusual to see the coach fill calls with Castilla players due to the lack of troops.
Criticism of this situation is raging at Real Madrid, something that is not new; it already happened in the second season of Carlo Ancelotti at the white club, when the team came to the end of the course very exhausted and all eyes fell on Giovanni Mauri, Carletto's physical trainer. In that case, it was not so much due to injuries as to the fact that Ancelotti trusted a few and wore down the same eleven over and over again until burning, but in Madrid they considered that Mauri had not complied with the plan and it was leaked that, had Carletto continued on the benchIt would have been with a new fitness coach appointed by the club.
The medical corps also receives criticism
Now, eyes are on Dupont, whose continuity in Madrid is in danger for an obvious reason: If Zidane does not follow, it is to be expected that none of his collaborators will. If the Marseillais finally leaves, a decision that he would communicate after a few days of rest that has been taken to reflect, he would be accompanied by his second, David Bettoni; his assistant, Hamidou Msaidie; and Dupont himself. Not so the recuperators Javier Mallo and José Carlos García Parrales, who were already at the club previously, nor the goalkeeping coach, Roberto Vázquez, who joined the team with the arrival of Solari and stayed since then.
The Real Madrid medical team is not going easy either. Dr Niko Mihic and the team he leads have also come under fire for numerous injuries and relapses suffered by Real Madrid this year, although it is understood that most of the responsibility falls on physical preparation and in the moments in which players have been forced to return before the optimal moment due to sporting needs.