Five days of training at the Ciudad de Real Madrid are in the books and the Real Madrid first team can now say that they have shaken off the rust caused by the season stoppage. Here, we will look at how players felt getting back to work.
“We struggled to really control the ball on the first day back,” Dani Carvajal told Real Madrid TV with a laugh. “In the end, you never train the same at home as you do out on the pitch, but we’ll keep getting better.”
The same sentiment was shared across the entire first-team as players and coaches agreed that while it was very nice to be back, it was also strange given the circumstances. Players are not allowed to work in small groups, scrimmage, or really interact at all during the sessions.
And due to the limitations put in place by La Liga and the Spanish Football Federation, Zinedine Zidane‘s job just became that much tougher. When asked what exactly each day looks like, Vinicius Junior described it better than anyone.
"“It’s tough to train like this, it’s a bit like when you’re coming back from an injury. We need to feel the ball, we haven’t played all together for a long time. The most important thing is to enjoy it, even though it’s a bit weird at the moment.”"
As we should have guessed, the programs Real Madrid wanted their players to be doing while in quarantine were not close to Zizou’s rigorous training sessions at the club’s facilities, so, rustiness and lacking chemistry were to be expected.
I will admit, however, that while the first week may have been rough and not a whole lot happened, just having the first team back training and preparing for matches is not only encouraging but relieving.
These last two months without any sports and so much bad news have been tough for everyone no matter where you live. But, seeing Real Madrid back on the practice fields and with actual news coming out daily, things are starting to feel more normal.
We are still over a month away from La Liga returning and just under three away from seeing Real Madrid go toe-to-toe with Manchester City in the Champions League, so the team has plenty of time to get back to match form.
That may be a little tougher given the circumstances, but these are world-class players who will be ready for whatever happens.