After the match at RFS, Anderlecht took an immediate charter and therefore arrived in Belgium early this Friday. The players recovered directly after the match.
This is a method that Domenico Tedesco also favors with the Red Devils: after a trip, some coaches prefer not to spend another night there but to get back on the plane as soon as possible during the night.
The argument is often that players sleep shortly after a match anyway, because of the adrenaline. Some also prefer to be home as quickly as possible, or return to the club’s facilities, rather than sleeping in a hotel for another night.
After the match against RFS, this is what Anderlecht did again, taking off around 2 a.m. from Riga. The players then have recovery exercises to do immediately after the match. “We did our recovery directly, and we will do more tomorrow. Sunday’s match will arrive quickly, it’s true”, admitted Mats Rits.
Indeed, on Sunday, Anderlecht plays at… 1:30 p.m. Not a very suitable time for such a schedule, even if Cercle de Bruges were going to Austria this Thursday and will therefore also have hours of travel in their legs.
The players will have been able to sleep a few hours before their training this Friday, scheduled at a later time than usual. We can also imagine some changes if one or the other has heavy legs. But as Rits points out: “That’s what we like as players, playing one match after another”…
