Real Madrid With a revolutionary new training plan

Zinedine Zidane has put into action an ambitious and personalised training plan for each of his players, which he hopes will bear fruit over the next few weeks. The new Real manager has chosen to make the changes now as his team have only a game to play a week up until the Champions League on 17th February.

Although most of us will remember his natural magic as a player, what the Frenchman assures is key to ensuring a team's victory is the physical training previously put in by everyone involved. This is something he learned during his time with Juventus.

Little by little, he realised that the gruelling training sessions that he suffered under Marcello Lippi which he hated so much were in fact the reason behind his continued success throughout the season. Now at the helm of Real Madrid, he has found the physical condition of his men to be wanting and is committed to ensuring that they are on peak form. To help him in his mission, he has Bernardo Requena, who up to now has been the first team's physio. Zidane has charged him with getting the team into shape.

This is not any old hard-line boot camp attitude that the new man has come up with. Quite the contrary - each player has been analysed individually, with a bespoke solution found bearing in mind his characteristics and position played on the field. The club is happy about Requena's new role. He came to Real following a recommendation by Sergio Ramos and with bags of experience from having worked with many great clubs such as Sevilla, Athletic and Spain's youth teams.

"You could see he was the right man for the job straight away", everyone says at the Valdebebas training complex where he is usually to be found. Despite his experience and talents, the club's previous first-team managers preferred to rely on their own physical trainers that they had brought with them.