2022 World Cup. Faced with injury risk, should we put more faith in youngsters?
Seven days. Seven short days separate the final day of most major European championships from the opening match of the 2022 World Cup, not much. It is too little not to ask a lot of questions before starting. Physical size is a common theme among them. Because apart from raising several human and environmental controversies, isn’t this World Cup an insult to footballers and their bodies?
Éric Bedouet already remembers something elementary. “Football is a summer sport, not a winter sport.It marks the former physical coach of the French team. The World Cup this year falls in the period when physical problems appear the most. » The cascade of injuries observed among the Blues in recent days, as everywhere else, will not contradict this. Nor the number of club matches, making the schedule incredibly tight.
The Tchouaméni feud between the Blues
Does the age of players facing such physical demands really affect the perception of performance? In fact, only three of the thirteen injured players in France’s squad during the last rally are under twenty-five (Boubacar Kamara, Jules Kounde and Theo Hernandez) and the average age of the workforce dropped by 26.6 years in June. 25.2 years, in September. Is this observation enough to imagine the seizure of youth in Qatar?
The reasoning is a little too simple. The French owners must return anyway. Second, because younger doesn’t always mean fresher, and this is true across all other nations. “There are a lot of settings that come into play”Between 2014 and 2016, Didier Deschamps assured Eric Bedouet. Confusion: lifestyle, mental tendencies, status in the team, game philosophy, resistance to very hot and very dry climate from Qatar…
“I even think that perhaps the most difficult will be the young peopleis believed to be a former physical trainer, now retired from football but still a keen follower. When you’re young and in the national team, you never play at 50 percent. And it is very physically demanding. » He intends to prove himself as well as in the repetition of matches. With this World Cup in the winter and no respite for players, the demand is constant in a season like this.
“We have to be careful if we take young footballers applying for a starting place in the French team.Introducing Eric Bedouet. Aurelien Tchouameni (Aged 22, under his belt in his first professional season at Bordeaux in 2018) for example, he has been exposed to Real Madrid, he has just arrived and constantly has to prove himself. Same with the blues. It requires a huge, certainly more important energy and mental cost than a player who is installed and lived. »
“Old people have art and art can be learned”
Recovery times are not handled the same from one personality to another. But age and experience often change one’s thinking about the importance of invisible work. “Old people have art and art can be learned”mentions Bedouet, where systematic testing quickly becomes clear before arriving at a choice.
There is more to it than the state of the World Cup at mid-season. “We’d be inclined to believe it would be easier with the season starting and a good summer break before that, but it will be interesting to check.”Backs former Blues fitness coach.
“Elections also depend on the physical training carried out in the clubshe continues. You have to check with each player to find out how they are physically. Because be careful, the feeling sometimes does not match the reality. The physiological state of health is not transferred to the player’s face. When he is in very good form, he can play the middle match very well and vice versa, he can be great, but he is on the verge of injury. All this needs to be analyzed. »
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It starts from the number of matches played, the number of minutes, the injuries he received in recent months and their evolution, the physiological state of his health… But not actually from the player’s date of birth.
