Only half a squad today as those who played plenty of minutes last night plus a few others were given a rest. Just 11 started and after all the warm up stuff Mario moved off to do one to one strength and stamina work. As you might expect he looked to me like he couldn't wait to get started properly.
Mancini took the rest away behind a fence to do some formation ,passing work. The team he had was Zaba,Lescott,Boateng,Micah,Vieira,SWP,Jo,Dzeko,Yaya,Silva. I stayed back and watched Mario for a bit and also a few others were doing one to one type stuff after injury,Boyata,McDermott,Elabdeloui and Poole.Earlier I had seen Nimley doing a bit as well.
When they all came back it was a 7 a side game with Razak and MJ added to the numbers with goalkeepers Taylor and Karius.The blues won and that was largely down to some excellent and cool finishing by Dzeko ( half the goals at least) whilst Silva on the other team was sublime at times.It was all going along from end to end in a competitive but nothing special way when Micah decided to go for a ball which looked like Stu Taylors and with his typical superhuman effort managed to collide strongly with Stu and down they both went.
I was close enough to know that Micah was ok even though he hadnt lifted his head from the ground but Stu was in agony. Both ok as it turned out but Stu was in real pain for a while. Plenty went in then but 5 stayed out some finishing work.As finishing practice goes I would say Dzeko was on fire. He was really excellent.SWP wasn't far behind.
I forgot to mention that on Monday in the high winds a tree had been uprooted alongside the path which skirts the fence nearest the main road.The roots of the tree are up in the air and almost but not quite blocking the path.Must have been one hell of a wind to do that as it's quite a big tree.Come to think of it I wonder now whether it will provide a vantage point for anyone to see over the fencing.
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