A bit like Siberia today with a very chill wind but everbody out there including Zaba after he had to finish early yesterday.MJ included. He missed yesterday because he got a knock on his knee the day before so was kept out of the EDS game as a precaution but he was absolutely fine today.A few "reserves" helped with the keeper coaching ( shooting and crossing) and that included Assulin. Out in the open again today for the 2nd time running which is unusual.
Loads of poles,cones, small goals set up for them to start with as each had a ball and just moved around individually for the first 5 minutes or so.It included a 5 a side net and a few always had to score when they got close.Some tried and couldnt hit the target!! Kiddo was used to play wall passes and It seemed Milner wanted to test his flexiblity with some of his passes. Good spirit and banter during this opening session. It took me a while to work out who was who as they were so covered for the cold with snoods and balaclavas.
Then into a pass amove game before Mancini took all the defensive players away for some work leaving the rest to play a 7 a side game.I stayed with the game and I think the most notable thing about was how Joe Hart was left one on one so often as his team didn't seem to bother about defensive work.And very unhappy Joe was as well and rightly so. Dzeko thus able to score plenty but also Barry had a great time. Good to see MJ in this playing and moving well. Shay was in goal at the end I was nearest to and as always he was full of shouting positional help for his defence plus plenty of high pitched screams when danger threatened or he was unhappy with a decision.Always good entertainment.
After this they all did some fitness drills with the exception of Boateng and Kolarov who went off to the hill and from what I saw did some sprinting up it.Then everyone went behind the fencing ( Kompany and SWP went in) and they got as close to a match situation as I have seen. It was effectively attack against defence though with almost full team numbers and the defensive team didnt really play beyond the half way line on the break. I guess it was to test out what Mancini had been working on just before. Included in the attacking group was Assulin but there was nothing too significant in that or what I saw.The bad news though was an injury to a key player which didn't look so good as he was helped off.The photographer snapping away next to me asked me who it was?Clearly his zoom lens and close up wasnt enough for him to know so I won't tell him here:) It happened so innocuously as well as all he did was cut out a reverse pass from somebody and it caught him off balance.Hopefully it won't be as bad as it seemed.
To finish there was quite a bit of time spent on defensive work against corners and free kicks.Plenty of players went in leaving just the defensive group again and Mancini, as ever, took plenty of time sorting the exact positions for them before he had a successsion of corners fired in from both sides.
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