Vitor's diary: Keeping a balance

Our assistant coach Vitor Matos is using a diary to provide glimpses behind the scenes of our training camp in Saalfelden.

In his third diary entry, the 36-year-old Portuguese coach, who came from Liverpool to Salzburg along with Pep Lijnders, speaks about why some last-minute changes to the training plan were made and which sport one of his colleagues is made for.

Wednesday 10 July 2024

Dear FC Red Bull Salzburg fans,

Today we decided to have a morning off for the players after the intensity of recent days! Having this balance in the pre-season is really important for us. They are taking on a new training methodology, a new idea of playing and it’s always important to consider recovery just as much as performance.

It was not a day off for the staff, however. Me and Pep worked on organising the afternoon session, which was mainly to focus on how to free up players from the back in our build-up play, and also creating different solutions for goalkeepers in that regard.

Everyone is there to support the daily routine of the team and help the players to recover. Simplicity and common sense are the key to creating a good flow of work between all the departments and understanding that the most important thing is to help the players to perform.

We keep taking steps on and off the pitch in the direction that we believe will make us all proud!! That also applies to our goalkeeper coach Pedro on his bike rides! He keeps improving day by day… slowly, but he is improving!

Christian Fail is our head of performance, a top professional and a brilliant padel player! Me and Pep already had the opportunity to really feel that😅! He told us that today at 5pm we will have really dodgy weather, so we decided to change the training to earlier to avoid any problems. By the time 5pm came, you could have been out by the pool ... we wish he was as accurate with the weather he is at padel! But to be fair to him, at 7:30pm the heavy rain made it here!

I hope you all have a nice day. I will report again tomorrow.

Des is Soizburg! That is our way!

Until  tomorrow,
Vitor Matos

All the other diary entries

#1 | Pride, honour and the first day of the training camp

#2 | A big thank you and a bike accident