The first thing to say about this thread is that it is not intended to say which is best but simply an attempt to highlight the differences. I think it would be true to say City fans wouldn’t care what training was done or whether there was any at all if it meant that we won every match.
Sorry in advance if this goes on a lot but I will break the whole thing into a number of parts to show the differences.
1) Planning/organisation.
Apart from confusing the hell out of me (and staff at the club) with starting times it does all seem a little bit less prepared now compared to what it was. I have no doubt the same amount of thinking and preparation goes on in advance but somehow the posts/nets or the cones for different exercises don’t always seem to be where they should be. It is getting a lot better recently. It’s interesting to note that anything set up on the main practice pitch seems to be done by Mancini himself. Almost as if he doesn’t yet trust anyone else to do it properly!
Also something noticeable that at the end of a session they just walk off and leave everything where it is. Cones, posts, mannequins, balls whatever, are just left around for someone else to tidy up later whenever that is. Nothing wrong with that but very different to before when at least all the balls would be collected in and accounted for.
2) Warm Ups.
Used to be religiously done at the start by physios before any real work was started. And they were watched/supervised very closely by the management team. Now they tend to be done intermittently through an overall session. To start with Ivan Carminati as the main fitness coach oversaw what they did but this has relaxed a little more as he has become confident with both the players and the other fitness staff to take a step away.
Overall though at the start they did a lot less warming up and stretching but this has gradually changed in the last 2 weeks or so.
3) Hands On
Whatever discussions take place pre sessions there is no doubt this is one of the key areas of difference. Mancini is 100% hands on. In every aspect of the football work Mancini leads the coaching. It seems like he and he alone tells them what he wants and how to do it whether defensive or attacking. Kidd or one of the others might be on the fringes of what’s going on but virtually never have I heard them adding to what he has said. That doesn’t go for the keeper coaching of course.
4) Tactical
Another apparent major area of difference. I say apparent of course as I wouldn’t agree that Hughes hadn’t a clue etc etc about tactics but I would agree that Mancini is more prepared to change tactics more during games. It does show itself in training by the way he spends more time on the pitch clearly talking to players about team shape and all sorts of things.
I have highlighted that Mancini at the start of every session does the same exercise moving the team around the field getting them used to the team shape he requires depending on where the ball is. Niedzvieki also did this at times during sessions but nowhere near as much emphasis was put on this aspect.
The surprise for me is that although Mancini does spend a lot more time on tactics during training I don’t think they have once under him ever played any sort of 11 a side training game to put it into practice to make it work and test it out against a team, to get the players to understand how it should work and of course to test it against players trying to stop them. That was something that did happen before.
5) Situations
Corners, free kicks, whether attacking or defending, never seemed to be high priority under Hughes but at least the defending of them has been picked up by Mancini. Apart from changing the tactic to a more zonal approach he does seem to work on them almost every session I have seen. Often it can be without a ball but just getting players to understand where to stand and what to do when the ball comes over.
We know it has worked so far. Less time, in fact very little, is spent on attacking them. Interestingly Mancini doesn’t get the whole team doing this work but either just the team (ish) for the next game or split it into 2 groups done separately. When Hughes did it all the team would be involved at the same time with some attacking and some defending.
6) Attacking
Probably the only difference here would be that I haven’t seen attacking work done here under Mancini (in an 11 a side sense) against a defence. Whereas Hughes would regularly have the attack against defence scenario.
Aside from that pretty well all the attacking routines I have seen them do are roughly the same. There is maybe less variety under Mancini so far but I am sure more to come.
7) Team Work
I have put this under a separate heading just to highlight the fact that Mancini does seem to split the groups up a lot more than before. Mostly they used to do all routines together rather than 8 at one time, 8 at another and the rest playing head tennis or whatever. I am sure there is method in it but I am not sure what it is.
There definitely isn’t as much fun during sessions as there used to be. Glad to hear it many might say and the only question I would raise would be about team spirit. Training sessions I would have thought have a part to play in building team spirit and on this aspect my personal opinion is that it isn’t as good as it was and this might have a little to do with it.
8) Intensity
Specific questions have been asked about this and I am sure the answer is known already based on my replies. They were a lot more intense before end of story imo. NDJ still upends somebody from time to time but overall there is a lot less effort expended during a session now. There is actually a lot less football played in a session and as I have said basically never an 11 a side game played.
9) Personal Chats
Before, during and after sessions the manager will have close discussions with individual players. Often the captain or a key player or one just back from injury. Mancini certainly does this and I have seen Kidd as well with a player but probably I would say Hughes did it more aided by Bowen and Niedzvieki.
Who knows what goes on behind closed doors but that is my observation from what I have seen.
Finally from a personal and selfish point of view I would say that watching training now is not as enjoyable as it was. Partly due to the issues of not knowing when it will happen and the fencing but also because there just seems to be less going on during a session. Mostly though it is because before I regularly got the chance for a chat with either one of the coaches or physios to get real insights in what was going on. Long gone now and never likely to return but that was a very enjoyable aspect and even though much of what I was told couldnt be posted I do think I could add to reports on here to make them of more interest.
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