The first phase of the PSG season ended on December 21 against Amiens in line with what the club has been experiencing for months: two new injuries, from Thiago Silva and Abdou Diallo. The truce made it possible to repair the ankle of the Brazilian captain, but Abdou Diallo is still in the recovery phase. In all, Paris has accumulated around twenty injuries of very diverse gravity (from a match to three months of absence) since the resumption of competition in August.
“All injuries are different, explained Thomas Tuchel in September. There are many explanations. The challenge is to find solutions. PSG is obviously a particularly exposed club, with its infernal calendar and its players who scatter around the world with each international break. "We are playing too much," insisted Tuchel.
Fate does not explain everything, in the very opinion of the club, which seeks to stop the avalanche. The repetition of certain lesions is particularly challenging. In summary, PSG has sore thighs, hamstrings, with at least nine episodes since the start of the season. Neymar, Mbappé, Verratti, Meunier, Diallo, Herrera, Gueye, Dagba and Mbe Soh have all suffered from muscular accidents in this area, to varying degrees.
Already between January and June, Draxler, Di Maria, Cavani, Kehrer and Nsoki had been affected in this area. Between the two, the club changed doctors, going from Eric Rolland to Christophe Baudot, without any obvious development.
Tuchel does not rely on the medical sectors
The problem could lie upstream, in the preparation, and in the necessary harmonization of all the skills of the club. "It's amazing to have so many injuries when there has been no major change in physical preparation or training mode as is the case if the club changes coach," says Alexandre. Marles, former head of the PSG Performance department. The Champions Trophy and the tour, the economic constraints that make it necessary to play matches as soon as the match resumes, play a role. "
The preseason was indeed once again marked by a long tour of Asia. Deficiencies in summer work would have been targeted, which led the staff to exchange to try to find adjustments at the start of the most crucial period of the season. In addition, Thomas Tuchel and his bodyguard (his physical trainer Rainer Schrey in particular) do not rely much on the medical and performance sectors to define the axes and training loads. Internally, a certain feeling of underutilization of resources has persisted for several seasons.
The chain of fourteen matches until the match against Dortmund, if Paris crosses the obstacles in cups, ensures a muscular recovery. The choice to resume very late, three days before the match against Linas-Montlhéry (Sunday), answers a question of well-being and family balance of the players more than the prerequisites of physical preparation and prevention.
"Barça, Real Madrid or Juve resumed earlier"
“It is difficult to understand, even if the players had a program to follow, said Alexandre Marles. Chaining fourteen games without preparation is not ideal. With this rhythm, there is no physical training, only optimization and little care. Unless the club skips the Coupe de la Ligue, it will have to restore intensity immediately, while players of this level lose muscle and speed qualities after five days of cut. You cannot redo a preparation in four days. The other clubs that are used to winning the Champions League, such as Barça, Real or Juve, know how to do it and resumed earlier ( Editor's note: Sunday or Monday ). "
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The room for maneuver will therefore be fine to avoid refilling the infirmary. The PSG which has never faced its knockout stages of the Champions League in full in recent seasons, knows the importance of this fact.