Training Thursday 15/12

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Late start today at 12 so ,as I was there for 11, I spent a while in the car reading while the rain lashed down. When I did go out,work was continuing on the fencing so Christmas might be the target date but for now the ladders still do the job. A full squad on view today bar Kolarov although Hargreaves was again working separately doing mostly running from what I saw.Rekik,Suarez and Razak being the younger ones involved again.

It was a longer overall session than for a while.Yesterday mostly fitness and stamina stuff maybe to counter the Monday night party.Today was a full mix of fitness routines,some football and quite a lot of tactical work.Early fitness routines were followed by Mancini taking a team in the middle pitch to spend time it seemed mostly on tactical stuff with plenty of emphasis as ever on positional play.The teams were changed a lot after a while so the messages got through to everyone.

Back out onto another pitch for some attack against defence and again Mancini switched the teams around.Never really bothered about goalscoring but seemingly more about moving the ball around and the player movement off the ball to create the openings.Then it was back into the middle pitch for some more fitness routines before another session of attack against defence but this time on a full sized pitch. At different times Zaba and Nasri were working separately with coaches doing quite a bit of extra running.

Mancini was very involved in this last session of attack v defence, often stopping the flow to make a point and of course being able to show them what he was looking for with a pass or some movements.Then to finish there was a game and very quickly a quality goal from Edin,shooting under a last minute defensive lunge and across the keeper into the corner.All the goals today came from strikers with Edin getting 3, Aguero one where he burst through two challenges with the ball still at his feet , and one from Mario a typical curler into the top corner from 20 yards.With the game just about to end there was minor flare up between two players which was something and nothing but sadly photographers were on hand and no doubt their pictures will be blown out of proportion as usual.

[cyberblue]

thanks for the report

[circumspect]

Would imagine Bob was very unimpressed with those horrible aimless long balls that handed the initiative to Chelsea on Monday and will be working to ensure no repeat.

[Chinners]

Cheers DH, qualiteh as ever

[The Man In Blue]

With the game just about to end there was minor flare up between two players which was something and nothing but sadly photographers were on hand and no doubt their pictures will be blown out of proportion as usual.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011 ... CMP=twt_gu

[Goaters 103]

Right on cue. The Guardian's Daniel Taylor is normally above writing such tosh, so its a shame he's lowered himself.

[The Foggy Blue]

It will, however, be added to the increasingly lengthy list of misdemeanours involving Balotelli at a time when the manager, Roberto Mancini, has spoken openly about being exasperated about the striker's apparent inability to conform.

It will, however, be added to the increasingly lengthy list of journalistic hyperbole involving Balotelli at a time when BLAH BLAH BLAH

[Goaters 103]

Pediction - Mirror, Sun and Mail tomorrow - "City in Crisis" "Squad at Breaking Point" etc etc

The sooner those fences go up, 50 bloody feet high, the better - sorry Doug.

[Blue Blood]

Pediction - Mirror, Sun and Mail tomorrow - "City in Crisis" "Squad at Breaking Point" etc etc

The sooner those fences go up, 50 bloody feet high, the better - sorry Doug.

Have to agree with that, these Journos and photographers are utter shites.

[Lev Bronstein]

Micah tweeted:-

"Me & mario are all good! these things happen in training & we shook hands after. it shows passion! #ctid"

Real deep crisis then

[feedthegreek]

its already being discussed on you guesed it talkshite.
with a negative edge to it , surprise surprise.

[CityGer]

Pediction - Mirror, Sun and Mail tomorrow - "City in Crisis" "Squad at Breaking Point" etc etc

The sooner those fences go up, 50 bloody feet high, the better - sorry Doug.

Agree.

Also, complaints over media coverage of this are misplaced imo. If we give them fuel we should expect nothing less than sensationalist coverage.

We need to stop giving them fuel.

[Mase]

Don't know why Yaya got in the mix. Milner could keep most people at bay I'd imagine.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Pediction - Mirror, Sun and Mail tomorrow - "City in Crisis" "Squad at Breaking Point" etc etc

The sooner those fences go up, 50 bloody feet high, the better - sorry Doug.

You are absolutely right,preferably with me on the inside.

Silly thing is with today's "incident" the two of them were playing on the same team!

[carl_feedthegoat]

Pediction - Mirror, Sun and Mail tomorrow - "City in Crisis" "Squad at Breaking Point" etc etc

The sooner those fences go up, 50 bloody feet high, the better - sorry Doug.

You are absolutely right,preferably with me on the inside.

Silly thing is with today's "incident" the two of them were playing on the same team!

That happens EVERYWHERE at every club at every ground from ground roots to professional and any sane minded person knows this........These journos really are the scum of the earth and I echo whats mentioned above..the sooner there are fences up the better.

[Jon London]

Hey Douglas I heard you on Talk Sh*te giving Goughie a hard time. Quality.

Them lot are such s**t stirrers and you were right Goughie claimed there was a bust up at every City training session. What a load of crap.

They had nothing to talk about so made up the nonsense about the wheels coming off at City.