MADRID: Real Madrid coach Alvaro Arbeloa insisted Saturday he would stand by the team’s star players and give them as many minutes as possible, despite debate over whether the team can function effectively with them all on the pitch.
Los Blancos, who were beaten at Benfica in the Champions League on Wednesday to drop into the play-off round, have sometimes struggled for balance when too many of their attacking talents play together.
Kylian Mbappe, Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior have completed each of the last four games for Arbeloa, along with goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, while midfielder Fede Valverde started all four and been substituted once.
“I always want to have the best players on the pitch, and the more minutes they can be available to the team for me, the better,” Arbeloa told a news conference, when asked if those five players were “untouchable.”
“These are players who can shake up a match at any moment. There will be people who aren’t Madrid fans who don’t want them on the pitch, but I imagine Madrid supporters want their best players always available, always on the field.
“I think the five players mentioned are among the top ten in the world, and so they have my full trust. And it’s not just my trust — their performance is what’s putting them on the pitch.”
Real Madrid host Rayo Vallecano on Sunday in La Liga, looking to bounce back from the defeat by Benfica and put pressure on leaders Barcelona.
French superstar Mbappe criticized the team for their inconsistency and Arbeloa said Madrid are working on solving that issue.
“Look, we’re working to find the consistency we want in our game and at all levels, and I think right now it’s neither a time for disappointment nor a time for euphoria,” said Arbeloa.
“It’s a time for work, nothing more.”
Arbeloa backs five Real Madrid stars he ‘always’ wants playing
https://arab.news/wkw7n
Arbeloa backs five Real Madrid stars he ‘always’ wants playing
- Los Blancos have sometimes struggled for balance when too many of their attacking talents play together
- “I always want to have the best players on the pitch, and the more minutes they can be available to the team for me, the better,” Arbeloa said
Italian gymnastics ex-coach stands trial for bullying
ROME: The former coach of Italy’s rhythmic gymnastics team goes on trial Tuesday accused of bullying athletes, fueling questions over the treatment of young athletes as the country hosts the Winter Olympics.
Emanuela Maccarani, a former national team gymnast herself, faces charges of abuse of minors at a court in Monza near Milan, which is hosting part of the Games.
The trial was sparked by explosive claims three years ago by two promising Italian gymnasts, Nina Corradini and double world champion Anna Basta, who claimed they quit the sport while still teenagers as a result of psychological abuse by Maccarani.
Corradini and Basta are civil parties along with two other gymnasts, Beatrice Tornatore and Francesca Mayer, and Change The Game, an Italian association campaigning against emotional, physical and sexual abuse and violence in sports.
Maccarani has denied the charges. Five gymnasts who trained with her submitted statements in her defense at a preliminary hearing in September.
Change The Game founder Daniela Simonetti told AFP the trial throws into “question methods that often cause pain, devastation, and significant consequences for boys and girls in general.”
“This trial is linked to a way of thinking, a way of understanding sport, a way of managing young athletes.
“The expectation is that there will be a real debate around this, whether these methods are right or wrong,” she said.
Episodes of alleged abuse in the discipline have come under growing scrutiny, particularly following a sexual abuse scandal in the late 2010s, which saw former Team USA doctor Larry Nassar convicted of molesting girls.
Vulnerable
The Olympics Committee has given more attention to mental health in recent years in a bid to protect athlete wellbeing.
While the discipline is not featured at the Winter Games, the world’s top gymnasts are preparing for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Coach Maccarani, 59, led Italy to the top of a sport traditionally dominated by countries from the former Soviet bloc.
But during her near three-decade reign at the Italian team’s National Training Center in Desio, not far from Monza, days began with gymnasts being weighed in front of one another.
Often a long way from their families and barely out of childhood, they were vulnerable.
Some took laxatives and weighed themselves obsessively. One world champion reported being berated for eating a pear.
The affair appeared to be over in September 2023 when Maccarani was given a simple warning by the disciplinary tribunal of the country’s gymnastics federation (FGI) and handed back the reins of the national team, nicknamed the “Butterflies.”
But in March last year the FGI, under new president Andrea Facci, sacked Maccarani.
The FGI’s official explanation to AFP at the time of her dismissal was that the organization wanted to “open a new cycle in preparation for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.”
Corradini, whose testimony led the Monza prosecutor’s office to open an investigation, told AFP last year she was happy for “the young athletes who will now join the national team and who will surely have a different experience.”
