Training at 2.30 was the word so I got there just after 11am as they started to come out :) They can't fool me all the time.There were 18 of them today so lets see if I can remember them. Zaba ,Ned ,Bridge ,Garrido ,Barry, Vinnie, Kolo ,SWP,Stevie , RSC, AJ , Bellers ,Cunningham ,Boyata ,Ibrahim ,Nimely, Vieira and Silvinho.
Definitely missing were Ade , Tevez , NDJ all of whom were nursing knocks but nothing serious and Shay wasn't with the keepers either with a slight shoulder strain but again nothing serious. AJ only did the early warm up stuff but nothing with a ball at all as he also is nursing an ankle and went in early.Today they started the session with the keep ball circles and right up close to the fence so I got a good luck and even closer feel to the spirit of the group. It wasn't the best by a long long way not surprisingly and not helped with 3 of the main men missing when it comes to having a laugh in training.
Bit by bit it picked up with Silv lifting it a little and Bellers. They broke into 2 groups and went off to do the usual type of running and stretching exercises before Mancini took a defensive group to work on regular team formation stuff whilst the rest just did what I would call freestyle moving around a pitch but on their own. The pitch had all sorts of poles, cones and mannequins set out all over the place and the players just moved around going in and out of things always with a ball at their feet. At times they were asked to quicken the pace but mostly it was fairly gentle.
The 2 groups then switched over for another 10 or 15 minute session and obviously Mancini worked on attacking movements with his second group.The final part was a 9 a side game which was reasonably strong but very few goals. RSC scored a very good one early on but then Gunnar made some good saves at his end. The other team only managed a penalty ( given for 3 corners!)which was very well put away by Barry .I think it was decided next goal wins it and Bellers was on hand to knock home a parried shot.
Bearing in mind a previous thread over the weekend I did notice a perfect cross form non other than Wayne Bridge right onto the head of Ibrahim but sadly the header went straight to the keeper from 8 yards.He then did it again only for the header to miss the post narrowly.It can be done!
I was all alone watching today until a scruffy scum oik came along on a bike.He was really there scavenging for a ball if he could get one .He actually asked Fausto for a ball but when I told him he was scum he uttered some great Italian phrase telling him where to go.He quickly left.
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