How Lazio transformed Nuno Tavares – Serie A – J12 – Monza-Lazio

Nine games, eight assists, these are the statistics of Nuno Tavares since his arrival at Lazio. Eight caramels which make him the best decisive passer in the five major championships. “He’s an extraordinary player with enormous potential, it’s a real pleasure to have him every day”welcomes Marco Baroni. In just two months, the Portuguese left-back has won the hearts of Lazio supporters, but also those of its president. « I wouldn't sell Nuno, even for 70 million euros », declared the whimsical Claudio Lotito about his new foal. After a complicated last season in Nottingham where he only played 12 matches, the former Marseillais has rediscovered the pleasure of playing in the transalpine capital. “I thrive in an ambitious club, with quality players. Without the team and especially the staff, I would not have reached this level”he explained ahead of the match against FC Porto.

Intense preparation and straightened jaw

On August 31, against Milan (2-2), Nuno Tavares played his first minutes under the blue and white tunic and offered himself a baptism of fire against Rafael Leão & Cie. Making the Milan defense dizzy with his incessant excesses, the former Portuguese U21 international crowned his performance with two assists in four minutes, for Taty Castellanos and Boulaye Dia. However, Tavares' adventure in Rome could have turned into a fiasco. Barely 72 hours after signing the last papers and thus formalizing his arrival in “the oldest club in the capital”the man with the neatest braids in Serie A injured his thigh in a friendly against Trapani, for his first minutes with Lazio.

A hard blow which, however, will not demotivate the Portuguese will-o'-the-wisp, on the contrary. « I immediately saw that he was determined to come back, it's always a real pleasure to work with this kind of athlete. He has a very strong work ethic and above all an impressive physical capacity to multiply high-intensity sessions »introduces Tomás Mota. Individual physical trainer for athletes for six years, the latter will then work with the former Gunner for a few weeks: « He is one of the most professional athletes I have worked with. He not only does the session that I ask him to do, but always seeks to understand, he is very curious. In addition to working with Lazio, he wanted to ensure that he had optimal physical strength that would allow him to last the entire season. This is why we mainly worked on the biomechanical and anatomical aspects, everything relating to the joints. » Or how an injury served as a trigger for resuming a career: physical trainer, but also psychologist and dietitian.

Renowned for being at the forefront of sports medicine in Italy and even considered a precursor, the Lazio Lab (the medical center of the Roman club) has been developing for several weeks a new medical practice for players, gnathology. For the uninitiated, it's the science of the jawbone. And Nuno Tavares will then serve as a guinea pig. « We must consider the teeth as the support of the feetexplains one of the club’s doctors. To understand clearly, when you have a stone under your foot, you try to contract your leg to avoid stepping on it. It's the same with teeth. If your teeth are not properly supported and your jaw is not properly positioned, it affects your posture and fatigues your muscles more quickly. » And according to the diagnoses of the club's doctors, this is the case of Nuno Tavares, whose jaw is not perfectly aligned, which directly affects his balance and therefore increases the risk of injury. If the Lazio Lab will initially cure the Lisbon native of his thigh injury, the Roman doctors will then prescribe him a gnathological orthosis (a sort of denture) to “keep your jaw in an optimal position to reduce the risk of injury” as one of the club’s doctors explains. Dentures that he wears daily, except when he is in the field. And the result is striking.

No Pain No Gain

In just one month, Roman doctors have simply transformed Nuno Tavares. To ensure optimal fitness, they also recommended that Marco Baroni not skip ahead with NT30, by initially only having him play one match per week (as a reminder, he did not been called for the first three Europa League matches). A very quietly necessary for the rehabilitation of the lateral white and bluewhich gradually gained strength over the matches. “With what we put in place with Nuno, we should not rush his return to the field. We feared that he would get injured again from his debut, that's why we recommended a cautious return to the field, avoiding him playing a series of matches at first.”argues one of the doctors Lazio.

If the explosive side has always been part of his characteristics, Nuno Tavares then returned to the field with “additional physical strength”as he himself says, but above all has gained in lucidity, allowing him to be more decisive. For comparison, during the 2022-2023 financial year with Olympique de Marseille, Tavares was responsible for an average of 2.2 actions/match leading to a shot, compared to double this season with Lazio, and loses the ball three times less (on average) with Lazio than in Marseille: 0.97 lost balls/match this season, compared to 2.57 with OM. « Nuno already has above-average physical strength. Our goal was to improve his physical abilities, so that they would make him even stronger on the field. Not only physically, but also technically, because everything is linked. He has gained in lucidity and the statistics prove it »boasts one of the club’s doctors. Now you know what to do: repair your jaw and get your fangs back.

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