Training Friday 26/2

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Doug:
Mancini indicates on the official site that RSC is a 50/50 for tomorrow. Did you notice him taking part in the practice session?
Thank you

He did take part but all they did was a keep ball circle so you can't take anything from that. I think he would be crazy to start RSC tomorrow but just have him in the bench. I can't see past Bellers/Tevez and AJ as a front 3

[guarani]

Doug:
I agree. I was just wondering if he might make the bench.
Cheers

[aaron bond]

Doug:
Mancini indicates on the official site that RSC is a 50/50 for tomorrow. Did you notice him taking part in the practice session?
Thank you

This is ridiculous. I know it's been said a million times before but it still amazes that we paid £17m for someone with an injury record such as his.

The quality of our medical team really concerns me!

[john@staustell]

Let's not forget we played extra time on Wednesday night. True, Chelsea played that same night in Milan, but maybe it was reckoned a bit of rest will do them well, as we need to put Chelsea under a lot of pressure tomorrow when they have the ball if we want to get something from the trip there.

I dont agree. I'd like to but it just seems the training is getting shorter and shorter and shorter by the day. Johnson and Toure didn't even play. An hour or two light work wouldn't do too much harm.

I thought Bobby said they would have to work hard EVERY day to be successful?

[Nick]

Oh bollocks to his training, he has killed us off in just a few weeks.

[Citeh&Crew]

Maybe training indoors?

They have all sorts of indoor gym type facilities at Carrington but not an indoor pitch. No doubt at all it will have to do with the 120 minutes at Stoke but it's still a surprise to me that some work wasn't done at all , even if just tactical with such a big match tomorrow. Deep into a season a balance has to be made between playing and training because the basic match fitness should already be there. However there is no doubt that overall the training sine Mancini arrived has been much less intense and onerous.

Hello Douglas! Just for reference, I am an American, and as such, have not had an opportunity to visit Manchester as of yet, although I do intend to later this year. One thing I noticed in my recent trip to London, is that space is at a premium. There's hardly room for a lemonade stand, much less an indoor facility for footie. (Indeed, while I was there, I wondered where everyone plays football in the Winter, considering that England is such a football crazy nation. Surely not outdoors!) Is Manchester (or Carrington) much the same way, and thus why there is no indoor facility? It baffles me that a Premiership club doesn't have such an indoor pitch. Even here in the states, in the small city that I live, there are four indoor fields for recreational players.

On a different aspect of your post.. I somewhat agree with the sentiment that having an extended training session the day before a game at Chelsea, is not a good idea, especially given the extra time game vs Stoke. It's not a good idea for those that actually played in that game, but it is absolutely necessary (IMO) for those who didn't play, and haven't had regular minutes throughout the season.

For those of you who have played football (or any sport) competitively on any level.. I bet you know that keeping match fitness is a tenuous thing, because to simplify: too little leads to sluggishness during a match, as does overtraining. And with football in particular, trying to keep match fitness, if one is not playing regularly (or at all) is not possible just by running on a treadmill, or going for long jogs. Perhaps a better training method is doing interval sprints mixed with endurance runs, agility drills and whatever ball-skill drills, for minimum. But all-in-all, nothing beats playing in a match, or match-like situation (e.g. 11 v 11, or 8 v 8 scrimmage that actually lasts for a good 45 minutes minimum).

So given the above, I have no idea how Mancini expects this team to keep up the pace and intensity (with regards to physical play) for the rest of the season, unless somehow, every player on the squad who gets minutes is self-disciplined to the point that they keep match-fit outside of practice? Somehow, I doubt this is the case. Unless I am missing some other piece(s) of information, I think we will fizzle towards the end of this season.

And concerning RSC; I was against bringing him in. I really thought that we should have kept Boj, or Big Frank, as crazy as that sounded. But now that we have RSC, and we see that he has the agility of a boulder on the field, and has been injured more often than not, I am beginning to question why he has been brought to the first-team. It's not that he doesn't have the ability, as he has proven in the past with his time at Blackburn. I think his main problems stem from the fact that his form, including his prediliction towards niggling injuries, is more closely tied to his fitness level than most players. He is not doing any good in his "sedentary" spot with the first-team, since he is not getting many match minutes, nor is he going to get much fitness training from a Mancini style practice. This in turn is preventing him from becoming fit and injury-free. So why not send him to the reserves for the rest of the year, or just have loaned him out earlier?

[Douglas Higginbottom]

I think it probably is unusual not to have an indoor pitch facility. City have one at Platt Lane where they used to train years back and where the academy still train now. Plans are being made for a new facility nearer to COMs I understand which no dooubt would have one if not 2 and most importantly house all City training at the same place. I did hear that there was a possibiltity this new facility could still be Carrington where they could buy more land and just develop /add to what is already there but it's still speculation and I think the area nearer COMS is more likely.

You are right re the fitness/training issue I am sure.Knowing exactly how much work needs to be done in between games is important and we can simply trust the specialists that they will get it right.The fact that they don't have to do hard work anymore on a regular basis should leave them more time on the training pitch to work on tactical stuff which to an extent I have seen but in other aspects I havent which has surprised me a little.

As for RSC I would guess the opinion is about 75/25 against him being worthwhile.I am one of the 25% but cant get away from the injury issue.Obviously we paid too much for him but that aside I think he is a quality striker who does need a some games to find real form.I think we have seen glimpses of his quality and if he does get a run of games I think we will see why they kept going for him.I thought it was going to happen around Christmas but he got a calf injury and for some reason he was played before recovering properly which set him back a while.

[Beefymcfc]

Just seen an interview with Shay who said the training is very different under Mancio. He said that they spend a lot of time on tactics whereas the players just want to be out playing football. He said they weren't used to this but understood the need to play to a set formation with more discipline.

Just confirms my thinking that Hughes let the players play their own game whereas Mancio wants a more disciplined style of play.

[Hinch's 5 Fingered Salute]

well the 24 minutes of training worked a fucking treat.


What the fuck do we know?

[Citeh&Crew]

well the 24 minutes of training worked a fucking treat.


What the fuck do we know?

Uhh, I admit to knowing nothing, at this point! Lol!

But seriously, while I am happy as can be over the win at Stamford Bridge, I still believe that towards the end of this season (meaning perhaps the last five matches), the lack of scrimmage training during practices will hurt us a bit. Not everyone is like Tevez, who keeps in top shape on his own.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

20+ minutes followed by a 4.2 win away at Chelsea means it worked!! Yeah we all know that doesn't compute very well or I would have to think back to the training when it's been minimalist and then we played badly and didnt win.

Just knee jerk reaction type thing again. No doubt at all as I have said that you don't need the same amount of intensive hard work type training all through the season. Getting the balance right isn't easy I am sure and different players will need different things. All we can do is trust the fitness coach and his team to know what they are doing and give them what they need.

Working on the tactical side as Mancini wanted to change it around all over the park was and still is essential.The defensive zonal approach whci most don't seem to like has worked so far without a doubt. There are times when it seems to fail and the fan reactions inevitably follow but it has so far been better than the man marking we had before based on results.

I am a little surprised at how little they have done at times for sure but more so the lack of time spent working in a match type scenario on the team formations we use. Maybe it's next on the priority list.