Opinion Back to the present
Get off the plane in Doha after playing the World Cup final, open Christmas presents and go straight to the Metropolitan.
Stressful end of the year for
Antoine Griezmann
, who this Thursday, 49 days later, returns to the League with Atlético.
The concentration of matches in a short space of time will have harmful effects for the players, according to physical trainers and expert sports psychologists.
“We are facing a novel dynamic.
This winter World Cup has been a great spectacle, with high physical performance and high emotional impact.
The wear and tear has been great, there have been footballers, like
Tchouaméni
, who have covered up to 15 kilometers in a game, a beast.
I think that in the next few weeks there will be a drop in performance.
It is possible that this will come in February, with the return of the Champions League and the Europa League," says
Iván Díaz
, co-founder and academic director of the Construyendo Fútbol training platform and former coach, among other teams, of Atlético de Madrid, Getafe and from Real Madrid.
This specialist, who has also worked at Ludogorets in Bulgaria and at Al-Itiihad in Saudi Arabia, maintains that great care must be taken when returning to normal activity: "You have to be
flexible and be open to different loads work
because there are different cases depending on what has been played in recent weeks and the psychological and emotional loads.
The variables are numerous.
Atlético de Madrid has three world champions,
Molina
,
De Paul
and
Correa
, but their wear and tear has not been the same.
What is clear is that they need to disconnect.
There are players who have three phones and when they go on vacation they turn off two and only leave the one for the circle of friends open.
David Peris
, president of the Spanish Federation of Sports Psychology,
points in the same direction : «The World Cup break creates a never-before-seen challenge for players, physical trainers and psychologists.
You have to
readjust the situations and find the optimal state
among some footballers who have experienced intense emotions in a few days.
Some come euphoric, others disappointed and others have enjoyed a rare vacation in winter weeks.
This expert in sports psychology warns that returning to the routine after the Qatar championship will be a complicated process: «
It will be like overcoming a post-vacation effect
.
Getting back into competitive situations will not be easy.
We have temporary patterns that help us function well, but now those patterns have changed with the World Cup.
In a short time, many will go from playing a final to playing a league match.
This is not easy and
the perception of control can be lost
.
Stress has to do with uncertainty and stress favors the appearance of injuries and impairs recovery.
Peris insists that the Qatar tournament will have physical and mental consequences, because there is hardly any transition between the World Cup and the League: «How to manage that you return to live together or share objectives with a teammate who a few days ago was your rival, as happened with
Mbappe
and
Messi
?
We are facing an unknown situation in the middle of the season.
You have to work with players with different needs, some return from the World Cup and others have had a low activity, with training and friendly matches.
Peris adds that although soccer is a collective sport, now it is necessary to do individual work.
«Many need to change the chip, disconnect.
This is not like a preseason
, in which you go little by little, here there is no time.
You have to look for psychological stimuli, but without going too far », he explains.
David Porcel
, a physical trainer integrated into the technical team of
Michel Sánchez
, now the coach of Girona, before Huesca and Rayo, agrees on individual work: "It is not the same to work with a world champion as with one who has felt disappointed, like the players of the Spanish, German or Brazilian teams, or others from small teams that have fulfilled their goal of playing in a World Cup.
You have to know how to manage your head
».
Porcel points out that this new situation must be faced as if it were a summer break.
«The players who come from the World Cup need to disconnect.
They should not join the group until the eighth day, with
particular work patterns,
"says the coach, who maintains that there will not be a high risk of injury and that the best thing about this hiatus has been to recover players who were injured.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
Atletico Madrid
Spain Soccer Team
Aurélien Tchouaméni
Getafe
Real Madrid