With the departure of Xabi Alonso, two men have taken power in Madrid. First, Alvaro Arbeloa, his successor on the Santiago BernabĂ©u bench. But also Antonio Pintus. The club’s star physical trainer during the mandates of Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane, his work and methods allowing players to be in incredible physical condition were considered one of the main factors explaining the Merengues’ multiple European successes. But with the arrival of Xabi Alonso in Madrid, he was relegated to a secondary role, since the Basque preferred to surround himself with his trusted men.
During the first part of the season, Antonio Pintus was still an employee of the club, but not really on the staff. A sort of technical unemployment which ended at the beginning of January. Florentino PĂ©rez, who has an excellent relationship with the Italian trainer and who felt that there was a problem in the team’s physical preparation, thus forced his return to the forefront against Alonso’s wishes. It is also – in part – for this reason that the adventure of the former midfielder as coach of Real Madrid ended.
A henchman of Florentino
With the appointment of Arbeloa, Pintus took over a leading role in the staff. Real Madrid has not hesitated to highlight the Italian, often presenting, whether via its official media or its affinity media, an Arbeloa-Pintus duo as saviors of Real Madrid. While leaking to the press that Xabi Alonso left a squad in pieces on a physical level. On Wednesday, Real Madrid also published numerous images of a day of physical tests at Valdebebas, with Pintus in charge.
We see the stars of Real Madrid performing different exercises, notably wearing a mask to measure inspired oxygen and expired CO2. Note that Arda GĂĽler had the best results of the team. A day of testing which was therefore widely publicized by Real Madrid, but it clearly did not have the desired effect. If the club’s goal seemed to be to convey a message that could be likened to “Club Med is over”, fans and journalists are not convinced. First, they believe that it is clearly unfair to suggest that Alonso left a squad physically decimated, and that it is an excuse that does not hold water to justify the level of play of the current team.
The Madrilenians are not convinced
This day is seen as a simple PR stunt from the club, and most media and supporters are convinced that the problem is above all technical and tactical, more than physical. “It’s pure marketing”launched a journalist from the Cadena SER. “After two days of rest, the players are together for only an hour and a half. The team’s situation requires something else. The physical aspect is good, but you also have to train the tactics for the next match and today they were not able to do that”said another speaker about this much-publicized Wednesday day. Especially since most of the journalists who have spoken in recent days on this subject have clearly explained that the Real Madrid of Arbeloa and Pintus does not necessarily give the impression of being physically fresher than that of Xabi Alonso.
The same goes for injuries, since Madrid players were already often injured before the Basque, and Bellingham was, for example, injured with Arbeloa. “In this story, oxygen masks don’t matter. The problem is when Tchouameni takes the ball and combines with Camavinga, that’s Real Madrid’s problem, it’s a level problem.”indicated another journalist from the Cadena SERconfirming that in Madrid, we don’t really believe in a possible Pintus effect and that the team’s real problems lie elsewhere. Already highly criticized by Madrid public opinion, Arbeloa will not be able to hide behind the Pintus shield…
