Pep Confidential: Inside Pep Guardiola's First Season at Bayern Munich by Martí Perarnau

Author:Martí Perarnau [Perarnau, Martí]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Birlinn
Published: 2014-10-15T22:00:00+00:00

35

‘I’M NOT SAYING MY WAY IS BETTER. IT’S JUST MY WAY.’

Munich, October 20, 2013

THERE ARE FOUR white lines painted on the grass. Pep’s four lines. They divide training pitch No.1 into five lanes, all more or less the same width. The two external lanes or corridors are formed by continuing the white line from the exterior (vertical) line of the penalty box all the way upfield to connect with the exterior line of the opposite penalty area. This leaves a big square of space between the horizontal edges of each penalty box. The two further white lines painted on the grass run from box to box, thus making the five vertical lanes of roughly similar width.

Despite the fact that it’s almost the end of October, we are sweating under a fierce Mediterranean sun. Training finished an hour ago and anyone who played in the win against Mainz 05 stuck to a simple warm-up, some rondos followed by a few short joint-mobility exercises to assist in post-match recuperation. This lasted all of 20 minutes for Arjen Robben, but he has also completed his own daily workout in the gym. Thirty minutes before and after training the Dutch player warms up on the exercise bike, does some stretching and injury-prevention work. He finishes off with some abdominal and other specific muscle-building exercises, followed by some proprioceptive and isometric muscle-concentration work. Robben follows this routine every day without fail. It’s an essential part of maintaining the powerful musculo-articular physique which makes him so explosive. He takes the same high-speed approach to his food, too, cutting up his steak at maximum velocity, just as if he were dribbling past an opponent and then chomping it down with similar haste. This need for speed is one of his virtues but it’s also a weakness. He has, on occasion, injured himself by attempting some tricky move at this same explosive speed, so preventative work is vital.

The rest of yesterday’s team are content just to do the standard post-match training: warm up, rondos, some loosening off and that’s it until Tuesday. The team is showing signs of tiredness. They’ve had a lot of ‘English weeks’ (a game every three days) plus the international break, which inevitably leaves them in a bit of a mess. Players like Lahm are absolutely done-in by the constant demands made of them, although the damage is more mental than physical. However, there is no time to rest. In three days’ time they play Viktoria Plzen in the Champions League and face Hertha in the Bundesliga three days after that. These matches are an important part of maintaining their momentum.

‘They need a break,’ says Pep. ‘But right now I can’t give them one. After the Hertha match we’ve a whole week before the next game and I’m going to give them two or three days of complete rest. I might give Lahm as many as four days. They need to go home and disconnect.’

Out on the Säbener Strasse pitch the men who were not in the line-up against Mainz or had just a few minutes that day play a game in two areas.

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