A challenging schedule

The transfer market is closed, as well as the dreaded Arab league, the squads are closed and the first national team break is about to end, so the season is ready to move into the seventh gear, as the seventh is the season it faces. Imanol in Real (in two of them he took the team that started the course).

And it will be the most difficult, without a doubt, because of the enormous challenge of the Champions League, with only about 10 days left, which adds an extra point of wear and difficulty to the course in every match. And it will come amid a whirlwind of games, trips and little rest, which is now football at its best.

7 games in 22 days

The calendar approaching Real Sociedad is no joke. To the fatigue of playing almost every week every three days and the jump in difficulty caused by playing against an Inter instead of an Omonia or Sheriff, we must add the ‘bad luck’ of the main league clashes that coincide along the stretch this. Imanol’s men will play seven high level and hugely important matches in 22 days starting this Sunday. They will start with a visit to Real Madrid and will also end in Madrid, but on the edge of the mattress, on the weekend of October 8. In between, Inter at Anoeta, three days after Madrid, Getafe, Valencia at Mestalla, derby at Anoeta and first European trip, to Salzburg. Almost nothing.

Then comes the break, which separates a kind of stretches of the highest intensity of the competition, because after that, another six matches are coming up in 21 days, with a week without interweekly matches, before the last FIFA date of the year, after which there are seven games left in 2023, where the group stage of the Champions League ends and, with one match remaining, the first round of the league. That means, in the next three months, a good part of the future of the season will be decided.

Night doesn’t help

If it affects something Imanol In press conferences when he was asked about the schedule or the physical state of the squad during the infernal stretches of matches, it was during the post-match break. He stressed several times that when the team plays back-to-back games and at night, their recovery is worse. “No matter what you do, after playing at eleven or twelve o’clock at night, there is no material time to recover properly, others eat at 2 o’clock in the morning, it is impossible to get a good night’s sleep at that time. ” Well, of the next six scheduled matches, four are at night, not to mention the inexplicable time change for the clash against Madrid, shortening the 32-hour break for the clash against Inter.

Squeeze eleven or give breaks

Due to this situation, and the experience (in the Europa League and Cup) of the previous years, Imanol He has to decide whether to stretch the squad, distribute minutes and lighten the legs of key men, or squeeze out the best while he can. The two closest Champions League duels are framed between the visit to the Bernabéu and the hosting of tough Getafe, and between the derby in Anoeta and the visit to Atlético. They don’t feel like encounters, a priori, to be played entirely with both players.

Breaks no longer serve as rest

The reality of Real Sociedad has changed over time and will do so even more this year. Imanol’s season was characterized by an intensity and speed of competition, pressure and maximum training, and also by squeezing everything possible from the best players in the squad. The Merino, Zubimendi, Oyarzabal to the best of its ability, Silva, Le Normand and some other key profiles tend to hardly rotate or rest during the intense phase of the competition, and take advantage of the national team’s breaks to recharge their batteries and train more normally.
However, the growth of the club is causal Imanol They will lose between six and ten pieces, more or less, on each FIFA date to leave with their respective teams. This September, eight were mentioned, but he has international potential like Sadiq, André Silva, Zakharyan, Remiro, Oyarzabal, Urko or even Odriozola, so the coach’s rest days in previous years, he is gone. Many of your key pieces are constantly competing and this, in addition to increasing the risk of injury, can influence Imanol when it comes to rotating more or less.