Training Wednesday 12/1

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Another full session today in the heat at Carrington.Turns out Nigel had flu plus a touch of Bubonic Fever and Malaria but he shrugged it all off and looked fine today.David Silva again working one to one again and looking good to me albeit with quite a few strappings on. Just Mario and Micah missing I reckon.

Right at the start Manicini took a group/team away for some work while the remainder did some slick work around mannequins all about short sharp passing and set up plays.Pretty good it looked too and then the groups switched to do the same work.At least most of them did except for a few who just stayed with the mannequins.

Then it was all change with a variety of groups doing different things which I assume was broadly in line with personal training needs identified by the sports science guys. 3 went onto the hill, Carlos ,Jerome and Kolarov.Another group working on fitness routines in and out of cones/poles and a bunch in a pass and move game.Mancini working on attacking plays with a group of 6 and Nigel ,like Silva, on his own doing some running.

Then to finish it was 3 teams of 6 where only 2 played at a time. One trying to score a goal and the other trying to get a player on the ball in and "end zone" in the middle of the pitch.Once they worked out what they were doing it was quite good.There was a worrying moment when Zaba came across to block Kolarov in full flight. He managed to block the shot but seemed to turn his ankle doing it. It didnt look good but after hobbling off and a moments treatment he came back on and played fine.

Best goal of the day came from Lescott who sold a great dummy and then one on one with Joe nutmegged him to find the corner of the net.I watched Boateng a lot today and he certainly was working very hard and I thought doing well also.When he did get something wrong he was beating himself up over it but he never stopped working hard.He will be fine I am sure.

[shawzy]

Great report..Thanks...Nice to hear Boatengs getting his head down..Best of luck to him.

Doug..Hows Dzeko getting on.Is he settling in with everyone?

[Dubaimancityfan]

Thanks Doug. Was Ade training and of so did he look disinterested, that is, he knows he's going ?

[BadKompany]

Cheers Doug,great news on Silva and i hope your insticts regarding Boateng prove correct.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Great report..Thanks...Nice to hear Boatengs getting his head down..Best of luck to him.

Doug..Hows Dzeko getting on.Is he settling in with everyone?

Absolutely fine. I didnt say anything specific about him today as he just blended in with the whole squad as if he had been there for ages.Looks the part for sure.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Thanks Doug. Was Ade training and of so did he look disinterested, that is, he knows he's going ?

I am 100% sure he knows where he stands but to be fair to him he has trained pretty well and not sulked at all.

[Crossie]

Any sign of MJ Doug?

[Mike J]

Any sign of MJ Doug?

doubt he would of trained after playing a half last night.

[13021J]

Who's this fella mannequin? Reckon we should have him in at full back, can't be any slower than Kolarov and is better on the ball than the Biat. Only kidding hope they find form against Wolves.

[Mikhail Chigorin]

Another full session today in the heat at Carrington.Turns out Nigel had flu plus a touch of Bubonic Fever and Malaria but he shrugged it all off and looked fine today.David Silva again working one to one again and looking good to me albeit with quite a few strappings on. Just Mario and Micah missing I reckon.

Right at the start Manicini took a group/team away for some work while the remainder did some slick work around mannequins all about short sharp passing and set up plays.Pretty good it looked too and then the groups switched to do the same work.At least most of them did except for a few who just stayed with the mannequins.

Then it was all change with a variety of groups doing different things which I assume was broadly in line with personal training needs identified by the sports science guys. 3 went onto the hill, Carlos ,Jerome and Kolarov.Another group working on fitness routines in and out of cones/poles and a bunch in a pass and move game.Mancini working on attacking plays with a group of 6 and Nigel ,like Silva, on his own doing some running.

Then to finish it was 3 teams of 6 where only 2 played at a time. One trying to score a goal and the other trying to get a player on the ball in and "end zone" in the middle of the pitch.Once they worked out what they were doing it was quite good.There was a worrying moment when Zaba came across to block Kolarov in full flight. He managed to block the shot but seemed to turn his ankle doing it. It didnt look good but after hobbling off and a moments treatment he came back on and played fine.

Best goal of the day came from Lescott who sold a great dummy and then one on one with Joe nutmegged him to find the corner of the net.I watched Boateng a lot today and he certainly was working very hard and I thought doing well also.When he did get something wrong he was beating himself up over it but he never stopped working hard.He will be fine I am sure.

Is that in addition to having his broken leg pinned up ??

Seriously though, excellent report Mr H as per usual. When you didn't mention anything about Dzeko, I did wonder if the "end zone" expression you used was a coded way of referring to him, whilst at the same time, throwing all the media morons/trash taliban off the scent.

However, apparently not.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Any sign of MJ Doug?

doubt he would of trained after playing a half last night.

Correct.The only one who played last night and trained today was the keeper as he had so little to do last night.

[john@staustell]

Who's this fella mannequin? Reckon we should have him in at full back, can't be any slower than Kolarov and is better on the ball than the Biat. Only kidding hope they find form against Wolves.

Why are we training with mannequins? We dont play Villa again until the week after?