Training Wednesday 6/4

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Hot today at Carrington but Mancini still kept his woolly bobble hat on and some of the coaches kept their tops on.Mancini ,Mario and Lescott coming over to some young fans for autographs at the start but the rest were kapt away it seemed.Great to see Zaba back and the only ones missing were Micah,Jerome and Boyata.Gentle warm ups to start with and then Mancini took a group of defenders away behind fences leaving the rest to do fitness exercises.

4 EDS players were brought over to work with the defenders group with Mancini.Not sure on what exactly but I think it was all about defending with an organised line rather than corners and free kicks.The rest carried on with their routines and the spirit around was nice to see.Once they all got back together it was into a one touch session of pass and move with quite a lot of emphasis on the pressing game.Carlos and AJ were not involved in this but separate with Ivan Carminati doing some running/stamina work amd working pretty hard too.

The passing exercise wasn't too intensive but good quality and enjoyable to see the touch skills close up.It went from 1 touch to 2 touch and got more competitive as it went on.The final work was a 5 a side game on a small pitch with full nets and other players/coaches scattered around the touchline to be available for wall passes.It just got more competitive as it went on with plenty of aggro ( the nice kind of course) and pressure put on the ref for decisions constantly.

All fast and furious and hard to pick out special players but today I would give MotT to yaya.That lad is seriously strong as SWP found out more than once but he uses it well to create space and showed 2 excellent feet scoring quite a few.Nigel as ever at the forfront of so much and he scored one beauty into the top corner. IT will come Nigel just keep going.

Mancini modified things near the end making it 5 a side but full man marking for every player. Kolarov marking Mario so Mario started messing by just running round and round Aleks just for a laugh. Pure playground stuff but when it came to the football Mario did well to find space which is one thing he is good at.Trouble when it was his turn to watch Aleks, let's just say he struggled.Kolo marking Vinnie was a good battle and it left Vinnnie limping at one point but he was fine.

Some great stuff rom Jo mixed in with some not so clever.Barry showed some great touches and one excellent goal.SWP battling a way and floored often but all in all a good overall entertaining session. The final bit was penalties from Milner,100% against Stu and Mario 4 out of 5 against Joe.Joe loved the one he saved.

[Chinners]

Excellent, cheers DH

[michaelkenworthy1991]

Thanks Doug

[Surrey Sky Blue]

Thanks Doug.

[avoidconfusion]

The obligatory what about MJ question?

[Ted Hughes]

The obligatory what about MJ question?

I've just seen what appeared to be MJ (wearing a wooly hat type thing) sat outside an eatery/bar in Chorlton. Funnily enough, I was on my way back from a bicycling trip which included a visit to Carrington, where I arrived too late to see Johnno or any sign of any footballers or strange blokes on stepladders ( but did get my phone out when I got there & read Dougs report of training, which I'd already missed, doh!)

I would have had a word to see if it was definitely Johnno, but I was covered from head to toe in mud & horse shit from said cycling trip, so probably would have frightened him. 90% sure it was him though.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

The obligatory what about MJ question?

Who?

[Douglas Higginbottom]

The obligatory what about MJ question?

I've just seen what appeared to be MJ (wearing a wooly hat type thing) sat outside an eatery/bar in Chorlton. Funnily enough, I was on my way back from a bicycling trip which included a visit to Carrington, where I arrived too late to see Johnno or any sign of any footballers or strange blokes on stepladders ( but did get my phone out when I got there & read Dougs report of training, which I'd already missed, doh!)

I would have had a word to see if it was definitely Johnno, but I was covered from head to toe in mud & horse shit from said cycling trip, so probably would have frightened him. 90% sure it was him though.

Could have been as was not training with either the first team or EDS group today.

[the_georgian_genius]

bluemoon are offering me 11/8 for Thursday's training, can you match it Doug?

p.s love the bit about Balo

[Douglas Higginbottom]

bluemoon are offering me 11/8 for Thursday's training, can you match it Doug?

p.s love the bit about Balo

If you explain what the hell you are talking about I will let you know.

[dazby]

The obligatory what about MJ question?

he's at Fulham mate, near the river.

[Biamp]

Cheers Doug, great read.

[CitizenYank]

Thanks as always Doug!! Sorry for being away so long guys!!