Maarten Stekelenburg strolls in front of the troops on Friday morning on his way to Ajax’s training. The time when professional football players return to the grass as young cows after their summer holidays are long gone. More than five weeks after the last game, most clubs have started preparing for the new season. For most internationals it will be a grueling football season with the World Cup in Qatar in November and December. How do you prepare players to be fresh and sharp at the right times? Do the interests clash between clubs and national teams?
A tour of clubs, doctors, exercise physiologists and individual trainers shows that there is no unambiguous view on this. Many clubs prefer not to look in the kitchen. For example, there is no comment from PSV, Feyenoord and AZ.
National champion Ajax, the KNVB, exercise physiologist Raymond Verheijen and physiotherapist André van Alphen did want to tell their story. “It is the most important thing for us that our players start the competition fit,” says Alessandro Schoenmaker, Head of Performance from Ajax. National doctor Edwin Goedhart knows from experience that in the opportunistic football world, the sporting result is paramount. “As a rule, winning the next match is paramount,” says the Orange doctor, who also worked at Ajax in the past.
It is clear that professional football players are facing the most demanding months of their career. Especially at the top of the pyramid, clubs will have to complete more national and international duels than ever. The Feyenoord player Tyrell Malacia and the Ajax player Daley Blind played 4,716 and 4,615 minutes with their clubs and the Orange respectively last season. They will probably be at more than half of that before winter. The Eredivisie season starts on Friday, August 5. UEFA wants all group matches in the Champions League, the Europa League and the Conference League for the World Cup to be played. Before the Orange squad starts against Senegal in the Al Thumama Stadium of Doha on November 21, national coach Louis van Gaal has had his internationals at his disposal for a week. “The players of Orange will in any case be less conditional at the World Cup than at the beginning of the season,” says Verheijen. “Research simply shows that.”
Feyenoord player Tyrell Malacia played at his club last season and for the Orange squad for a total of 4,716 minutes
Sharpness and freshness are declining
Verheijen previously worked as an exercise coach for various national teams and clubs, conducted numerous studies and wrote the Football Condition Handbook† For Verheijen, only facts count, so he expressly distances himself from “unfounded opinions” of others in this article. Verheijen concluded on the basis of research into 27,000 matches that clubs that do not have three, but two days of rest after a match have 20 to 40 percent less chance of winning. “You need more than 72 hours to fully recover from a race,” says Verheijen. “If clubs play three times a week from August to November, it is almost impossible to train in between. Then the extra incentive to become stronger conditionally will be missing. Slowly but surely, players are so underloaded. Fitness and freshness are declining.”
In the coming weeks, the medical departments of professional football clubs will be faced with the question of how to achieve the right balance between fitness and performance. In the short and long term. Usually the first three weeks of preparation are used to build up fitness and the last three weeks to gain competition rhythm. “Actually, we don’t do it any differently now than usual,” explains Schoenmaker. “We started with players who have not played for their country. The internationals join a little later.” Verheijen states that it is now better for clubs to gradually spread the building up of fitness over the full six weeks. “In the end, the players will be just as fit at the start, but their condition will last longer,” explains the owner of the World Football Academy. “All of that has been proven. But in the football world it is allowed to ignore facts.”
No rocket science
Edwin Goedhart believes that keeping players fit is not quite rocket science is. “No one knows what is ideal. Of course, certain things are certain. There is no doubt that playing matches is very different from training”, explains Goedhart. “It is logical that clubs want their players quickly fit for qualifications of European tournaments.” Schoenmaker agrees with him, but does not see that as a disadvantage for the Orange. “If our internationals are as fit as possible, it is ultimately in the interest of the Dutch national team.”
Some clubs try alternative methods to keep their players as fit and fresh as possible. For example, former PSV coach Roger Schmidt had his players rotated regularly last season. That was not an unqualified success. Sporting performances were mixed and PSV struggled with a large number of injuries throughout the season. The German trainer left for Benfica, but the medical staff led by Gust van Montfort stayed. He was not available for comment. Verheijen states that PSV has brought disaster upon itself. “Here too, there is simply a lack of professional knowledge,” sighs Verheijen. “Football is about three things: communicating, making a choice and executing that choice. The better players are attuned to each other, the better that process takes place. So if the right back always has the same right winger in front of him, the communication will go more and more smoothly. Sometimes they need each other’s body language. If there is always another person standing in front of him, the miscommunication will be greater. Resulting in a loss of the ball. So with rotation, trainers think they can find a solution, but in fact they create a much bigger problem.”
Watch out for underload
Goedhart agrees with this, but thinks that the replacement of players also depends on the way of playing football. And the competition in which they play. “In England they don’t shy away from using the B-team in cup tournaments. The load for highly explosive players is greater. Sometimes you would rather take it out a little earlier. In that regard, as a doctor, I am very happy with the option to apply five substitutions”, Goedhart explains. Schoenmaker of Ajax: „The experienced players will find their own rhythm. We have to pay particular attention to the young boys. We have to dose well.”
Almost all parties agree on one thing: not playing or hardly playing is much worse for football players than playing three times a week. Schoenmaker explains that Ajax wants to keep the numbers ’12’ to ’20’ as sharp and fit as possible by having them train extra after match days. According to Goedhart, clubs should watch out for underload. “Reserve players lose their fitness due to lack of playing matches. For example, they are virtually no longer suitable for playing a series of duels in succession. That is a bigger problem than overload.”
Physiotherapist André van Alphen agrees: „No, I have never encountered an overloaded football player. They usually train about eight hours a week and play a game. The difference with most Olympic athletes is huge. They often train for at least fifteen hours and gymnasts sometimes as much as thirty.” And then laughing: “In that regard, you can even wonder whether football is a top sport.”
I have never encountered an overworked footballer
André van Alphen physiotherapist of Virgil van Dijk, Nathan Aké and Frenkie de Jong
Numerous clubs and players ask for the help of Van Alphen’s company FysioConcept to do extra work in addition to the regular training sessions. “During the holiday of players, we are busy preparing them for the preparation. In doing so, we hold them completely up to the light to map out all injuries. We also pay attention to nutrition and sleep. Because there is now less time than usual, this is all even more important,” says Van Alphen, who works with internationals such as Virgil van Dijk, Frenkie de Jong and Nathan Aké. “After the training sessions have started, we often work with them for an individual session. So that they get in shape. We play games of five against five, a game of foot volleyball or a game of padel. That is also to prevent them from PlayStation go play. It is important that they do work.”
Van Alphen has also been working with Turkish striker Burak Yilmaz for about eight years. According to the physiotherapist, the surprising acquisition of Fortuna Sittard is still top fit at the age of 36. “He has been working through extra training sessions for years without complaining. Last year I had few friends when I prepared him for the duel with the Orange. Yilmaz scored three goals. His hunger has not yet been sated. He will now work hard to become the top scorer in the Eredivisie. Others in the Netherlands could very well take an example from him.”
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