Dupont makes Madrid fly

With two games in five days since the restart of LaLiga, once the worst part of the coronavirus crisis is over, you can start to draw conclusions about the performance of Real Madrid facing the nine remaining days and the persecution of the league leadership, currently in the hands of Barcelona. The first is that the white team has returned to activity with marksmanship (six goals in two games) and increasingly fine-tuning the offensive production (against Eibar, five shots between sticks; against Valencia, 14). But perhaps the most important thing is that, in a context of matches every three to four days for almost a month and a half, Madrid is seen as a whole on the physical plot, the direct responsibility of Grégory Dupont.

'The scientist', as he is known in France, where he led his team to the world title in Russia 2018 at the hands of Didier Deschamps, programmed a mini-preseason from the start, which, when the moment of truth comes, is bearing fruit: against Eibar, Zidane made the five changes and Madrid suffered in the second half, but there is consensus in the club that it was due more to a relaxation derived from 3-0 in the first half than from a physical drop; and against Valencia the Marseille coach only warmed up and introduced Asensio and Vinicius from the bench, which did not prevent Madrid from closing the match very physically physically, helped, of course, by that 63.5% of ball possession that tired the one who was looking to steal the ball, most of the time Valencia.

Only two changes from Eibar to Valencia

Zidane sees the players from Madrid so whole in this season restart that between the first game and the second he only made two changes in the starting eleven: Rodrygo left the place for Valverde and Marcelo, for Mendy. The rest, the hard block, remained: Courtois; Carvajal, Varane, Ramos; Modric, Casemiro, Kroos; Hazard and Benzema. We will have to see what changes it introduces on Sunday against Real Sociedad, since rotations in this context are more an obligation than an option, but Zidane starts with a fixed block that, thanks to the work done since the training sessions resumed, can endure this first charge.

The work intensity imposed by Dupont has also claimed its victims in the form of injuries, the expected in this context: Jovic and Mariano arrived already touched of the confinement, but then Nacho, Lucas Vázquez and Isco have been added to that list. Zidane has a deep and well-compensated squad to carry out the task (against Eibar, the five white changes cost 249 million euros at the time to be signed), although the absence of the central player causes him special problems, since it prevents him from rotating Carvajal after the transfer of Odriozola last January; the other option is Militao as a winger, but Zidane does not finish trusting the Brazilian for that task.

28 sessions until Eibar

From the return to work of Real Madrid and until the duel against Eibar, the white team conducted 28 training sessions over five weeks: 24 combined physical and ball work, three only had the ball as the protagonist and only one was fully physical. Dupont devised a combined plan from the outset to fine-tune the players, but without depriving them of the more playful part of training after two months confined to their homes.

The first three weeks were especially intense, with six days of work in each of the first two and just a day of full fun on May 21, with games of soccer-tennis and rondos; the rest were a combination of physical work and individual ball exercises, marked by those sessions due to restrictions in the number of players.

From June 1, Zidane was able to work with all the footballers together and the physical pitch lost some weight to make way for the reduced matches, more football-tennis or the match drill that took place at Di Stéfano on June 6. Eleven sessions in which the person from Marseille could start to strengthen defensive and tactical concepts, already thinking about the rivals to come.

Zidane, without margin to consolidate concepts

And it is that from now on the time for sessions in which to implement ideas will be reduced to a minimum: This Friday, half of the team recovered after the victory over Valencia, on Saturday the previous session is played and on Sunday, a trip to San Sebastián and a new match, against Real Sociedad. Another three days later, he receives Mallorca at Di Stéfano; and four later, he traveled to Barcelona to play against Espanyol. And so on, until the end of LaLiga, scheduled for the weekend of July 18-19.