This FC Barcelona walks on water. The balance sheet of Hansi Flick’s team is also chilling, since the Blaugranas have won their 8 matches played so far this season, with an average of 4.5 goals per match. A colossal offensive arsenal therefore, and this while the absence of recruitment of a top 9 had created some doubts among the members. It must be said that Raphinha is a hit in this new position of top attacker, to the point where he is already compared to Ronaldo Nazario. Lamine Yamal, Pedri or Fermin Lopez are also at an excellent level, while newcomers like Anthony Gordon or Karim Adeyemi already seem well suited to the team and are already contributing with goals and assists.
What also greatly impresses fans and observers is the physical level of the team. Generally speaking, we see FC Barcelona much faster and more enduring than the teams it faces, and when we compare it with other European leaders, the Blaugrana also seem fresher. And this even if many players played in the World Cup. Hansi Flick’s troops have already found their cruising speed, as if there had been no off-season. And it’s largely thanks to Yann-Benjamin Kugel, a German physical trainer who arrived in Catalonia at the start of the summer, and whom Hansi Flick absolutely wanted to have under his command.
Larger loads
It must be said that the two men got to know each other within the German federation, where Kugel worked for around ten years, notably being on the staff of the 2014 world champion team. At the age of 46, he has also worked with a good number of Bundesliga clubs and even for eSports teams, and he has already changed everything at Barcelona. Since his arrival, he has notably increased the workload in terms of bodybuilding. End of muscle strengthening exercises with elastics: time for bodybuilding and strength exercises with heavy weights. The goal is obviously not to make players bodybuilders or powerlifters, but to improve their explosiveness, their speed of execution, their ability to change direction quickly and their acceleration. Blessed bread for Hansi Flick, who wants a fast team, whether with the ball or when it comes to recovering it.
Passionate about sport, and already Spanish-speaking before arriving in Barcelona, Kugel integrated very quickly. It is also not uncommon to see him training with the players and applying the exercises he gives them himself, and his physical condition is probably not that far from that of the Barcelona stars. A physical preparation totally adapted to the game played by the Spanish champion, and which favors quality rather than quantity. The goal is not that players can run as long as possible, nor even that they are as strong as possible, but simply that when the situation requires it on the field, they can run as fast as possible in a rather short period of time.
Specific plans
Of course, the nature of each exercise as well as the loads used are not the same for everyone. As explained A.S. This summer, Kugel, for example, developed a specific plan for Pedri so that he can regain his best physical level, he who is often handicapped by minor injuries. And for the moment, it’s paying off quite well since the Canarian displays a brilliant level of physical fitness. In addition to exploiting the physical potential of the players as best as possible, Kugel’s objective is also to reduce the risk of injury as much as possible. If joint injuries resulting from a tackle from an opponent cannot, for example, be avoided, Flick had noticed far too many small muscle glitches and relapses in his locker room over the last two seasons. The arrival of his compatriot therefore aims to reduce the number of muscular problems in the team. With a very clear philosophy: rather than sparing or resting the players, the objective is to strengthen their bodies as much as possible. It does not combat wounds by ” less “but rather by the ” more “.
Unlike many new school prep guys, Kugel isn’t necessarily obsessed with stats or GPS data. Of course, it relies on it, but it relies a lot on the sensations transmitted by the players, and on observation work that is more visual than analytical. Generally speaking, the physical preparation work is more demanding than in previous seasons, and it shows on the pitch. Of course, the objective of Kugel and the Barcelona staff is for the players to be at this same level – or even sharper – when the big deadlines of the second part of the season arrive. See you in March/April so…
