Milan, the secrets of Pioli’s team: from technology to nutrition

Explosive, brilliant, inexhaustible, you name it. Because with the adjectives that fit Milan perfectly it works as for the turnover of Pioli: the interpreters change, but the result remains satisfactory. We saw it in Bergamo, and before that in Liverpool and San Siro against Lazio and Atletico, it is a constant of the season: nobody (or almost) in Serie A is as athletically equipped as the Devil, and even in Europe Calabria and teammates hold the comparison . Milan’s engine runs great and every gear fits in with the others: who wondered if Brahim would have held up against opponents twice his size, who had doubts about Tonali’s dynamism or more generally about the “duration” of the team’s battery until 90 ‘he found the answers in the performances. Almost always convincing, certainly not accidental, because the development with the preparation is a very precious work, which starts from afar and in which thirty experts from the sports and medical areas participate. A team for the team that has been strengthened: Milan have made the transfer market here too, investing in human capital, structures and technology.

Synergy

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Based on the input of the owners, who have always imagined a structured and avant-garde methodological approach for the club based on the model of the Premier League, the staff has been enriched with new figures. The coaches Matteo Osti and Roberto Peressutti were supported by Filippo Nardi (who arrived from Inter with the championship), while the mini-team of re-athletes was strengthened with the former Juve Marco Luison: with Andrea Luppi he deals with the recovery of the injuries followed. in the medical area, while the return path is completed by Gabriele Massucci, an “athletic” re-athlete who reports to the technical area. Here is an example of Milan’s 2021 preparation: skills and sectors meet, dialogue and act in synergy to optimize performance. The game of banks continues on other terrains, from nutrition – controlled and managed by nutritionists even after the match, with an area dedicated to San Siro – to technological tools: the Rossoneri train with a GPS on them that allows them to collect and process the individual physical data – the club also makes it available for national team engagements -, the aerial shots of the drones and those of the cameras on the Milanello fields make it possible to study running, posture and possible causes of injuries. The data analysts collect numbers and information, the Pioli staff interprets them, the one coordinated by Dr. Stefano Mazzoni studies them from a medical point of view. And the new head of performance Andrea Azzalin collects information on a global level: from his work a database for the first team, women and youth sector will be born.

Body and mind

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On the pitch, however, the players go. How do they go “faster” than others? It is impossible to intercept a single recipe, because the performance is the set of several components, from the individual state of form to the organization of the game. Pioli’s collaborators direct the group on the most athletically appropriate tracks, and they do so by managing the loads based on the characteristics of the individuals, but also and above all by tapping on two macro-keys. The first crosses mind and body and has occupied several slices of summer preparation: it is the “playful entrance”, or rather an antechamber of training that engages the group in exercises (often suggested by Daniele Bonera, who “imported” them from experience in Spain) and challenges aimed at the next job, lightening the head and cementing the sense of union. The second is an essential step, especially in busy seasons: active recovery (from stretching to cryotherapy), of which Ibra is an absolute lover. Needless to say, Zlatan’s example has had an effect on his comrades: who knows if young devils don’t arrive fresh at 40 like him.