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It seems yonks since the last session I saw after holidays (great to watch the WBA game in the Mad Hatter pub in N York),injury and international breaks and I come after the Ajax game with the media deciding it's time to tell us all we are imploding with all sorts of fights and disagreements going on in the changing room.Total nonsense as we all know but I was interested to see how it was today.

Great to see John Guidetti already out when I arrived.Working one to one with a coach and the first time I have seen him outside this season.The rest filtered out slowly and it was clear we are still missing quite a few with injuries but from what I saw no new ones after Wednesday.The only scary thing for me was watching a guy climb a tree to get a high viewing point.I got dizzy looking up at him.Immediately they were all out Mancini took them to the middle pitch to do some tactical work with emphasis on zonal defence from corners.

I am one of those who isn't really anti this system as we have done ok with it overall but when it goes wrong like it did with the 2nd goal on wednesday it looks really bad.The work today wasn't about slinging balls in and heading them away but it seemed to me reminding players what the role is once the ball is centered. i.e players have to attack it from their given positions once they know where it is going.Hopefully from now we will have another run where we don't concede from corners.

17 players out today plus keepers and Guidetti working with them rather than doing a full contact session which I assume he is not ready for yet.Included in the 17 were Scapuzzi,Kolo,Sinclair and Evans.They came over near the fencing to do keep ball circles and RM,DP were watching closely and in long discussion.

Maybe a slightly subdued session to start with but it developed and quickly got lively as it usually does before Carminati ended it and got the 1 and 2 touch passing games going.Plenty of this work using the small 5 a side goals and scorers were Kun,Mario,Barry before an audacious 45 yard effort from Kolo hit the bar.Quite a feat with 5 a side goals from that far. Best defender in this part was Mario who must have blocked 3 great efforts from Carlos.

A few short sharp exercise routines followed this before it was game time.It turned out to be only a 6 a side game as the main players from Wednesday went inside.Mancini made up the numbers.First goal was a Sinclair left footer and he went on to score 3.Milner hit the post with a screamer from 20 yards, Scapuzzi scored 2,Kolarov one,Mario a couple plus hitting both posts with one shot. Milner then got one,Mancini got another and Nasti smashed one in and hit the bar with another screamer.

All good stuff with Richard Wright in particular making some great saves,Tevez dropping deep to show good passing range and clever interplay with his one twos.No idea what the score was when it finished and I expected free kick practice but there wasn't any today for a change and that was it and just a shortish session.

Thanks Doug, your efforts as always are much appreciated.

In regards the 3 at the back, I'm sure I recall you saying that we were working on this system in training some time ago. Can you recall when was the first time you noticed it?

Foreverinbluedreams wrote:Thanks Doug, your efforts as always are much appreciated.

In regards the 3 at the back, I'm sure I recall you saying that we were working on this system in training some time ago. Can you recall when was the first time you noticed it?

In a word no.The thing about working with that system or any system is that they don't play,or very very rarely , 11v11 in training or at least in any training sessions I have witnessed.They do ,as I have mentioned many times,work on shape and positioning and that covers 4.4.2 and 3.5.2 at times but the football that is played in training sessions is almost always on small pitches and very often with less than 11 a side.

Cheers Doug. What was the mood amongst the watchers/press guys ... did it feel like they were out for a scoop with regards to a potential bust up? Richard Wright always sounds superb in training ....

Cheers Doug.

Nearly forgot all about Sinclair until you mentioned him scoring 3 today in tranining, he really has had very little game time so far.I would imagine he will be desperate to play some part tomorrow against his old club.Hopefully he will get a run out against them at some stage of the game.

The pictures on the daily fail website suggest everyone looked well down in the dumps, although no doubt they select the best ones to go with the story.

Can't but thinking the looks on some of their faces paint a clear picture.

I don't understand why players can be the League and most of the also FA cup champions in the last 2 years, and lose faith with the manager. They are well paid, looked after, there are no massive weaknesses or cunts in the team to upset things at the moment, so why they fuck don't they seem to trust Mancini?

Its only the papers saying they don't trust Mancini ... as with last years title run-in I believe this is all a front

Crossie wrote:The pictures on the daily fail website suggest everyone looked well down in the dumps, although no doubt they select the best ones to go with the story.

Can't but thinking the looks on some of their faces paint a clear picture.

I don't understand why players can be the League and most of the also FA cup champions in the last 2 years, and lose faith with the manager. They are well paid, looked after, there are no massive weaknesses or cunts in the team to upset things at the moment, so why they fuck don't they seem to trust Mancini?

It's part of the ongoing media bullshit the surrounds us. If they wind-up some of our fans they're happy. It doesn't work within the club, though.

Chinners wrote:Cheers Doug. What was the mood amongst the watchers/press guys ... did it feel like they were out for a scoop with regards to a potential bust up? Richard Wright always sounds superb in training ....

I think there were 2 photographers there today and you are right that they would be keen to get pictures that follow up the negative headlines around today.Easy to do no matter how happy the bunch are as there will always be the chance of a picture when someone isn't smiling/laughing.That's what these guys do.I didn't speak with them today as they were seeking different vantage points to get the clearest pictures they could.They also got plenty of chances to get pictures of happy faces but they know the Daily Fail wouldn't pay them for those

I am sure Sinclair would be keen to play a part tomorrow and would be surprised if he didn't even if it's from the bench.

With Garcia, Rodwell, and Milner out for central midfield and Silva out in midfield, I think Sinclair might play in a midfield with Barry, Yaya, Nasri, Aguero behind Tevez.

Is Maicon dead?

You sure it was Scapuzzi?

Today's EDS v Boro today - Johansen, Leigh, Meppen Walters, Glendon, Kennedy, Rekik (c) (Hutton 69), Drury, Ntchum, Nimley (Cole 43), Lopez, Scapuzzi (Pozo 68)

Mase wrote:Is Maicon dead?

Oh my god!!! Surely it cant have been Andreas Mancini! It isn't always that easy to make out the odd one through the curtain but I certainly thought it was him.

Doug
I love these reports, especially in the lead up to a home game that I'll be at.

One frustration though is the constant tippy tap small sided games they seem to do. I reckon that's one of the reasons we find it hard to move out quickly with passes moving the ball Barca and Arsenal/Dortmund/Ajax style. getting the players comfortable moving 3 yards for an angle is fine as long as they can also make the angle by sprinting 10 or 15 yards. I've not seen this in a proper game yet.

It also might explain why we often see our creative 'crew' stuck within 3 yards of each other during a game meaning they are easy to mark and the switch of play or surprise reverse pass is never ever on.

Am I imagining this issue Doug?

Nige wrote:Doug
I love these reports, especially in the lead up to a home game that I'll be at.

One frustration though is the constant tippy tap small sided games they seem to do. I reckon that's one of the reasons we find it hard to move out quickly with passes moving the ball Barca and Arsenal/Dortmund/Ajax style. getting the players comfortable moving 3 yards for an angle is fine as long as they can also make the angle by sprinting 10 or 15 yards. I've not seen this in a proper game yet.

It also might explain why we often see our creative 'crew' stuck within 3 yards of each other during a game meaning they are easy to mark and the switch of play or surprise reverse pass is never ever on.

Am I imagining this issue Doug?

Mostly yes you are imagining it. When they play the "game" at the end of the session it might not be 11 v 11 on a full size pitch but it is not tippy tappy either.It's on half a full size pitch and it's played seriously with lots of aggression and intent and plenty of movement. Prior to that they will have other exercises based on passing and moving but they also involve serious closing down of players on the ball and always options of switching the play with longer passes when the "defence" has closed it all down.

From what I hear all clubs (most certainly) do much of their practice games as small sided on smaller pitches.

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:

Nige wrote:Doug
I love these reports, especially in the lead up to a home game that I'll be at.

One frustration though is the constant tippy tap small sided games they seem to do. I reckon that's one of the reasons we find it hard to move out quickly with passes moving the ball Barca and Arsenal/Dortmund/Ajax style. getting the players comfortable moving 3 yards for an angle is fine as long as they can also make the angle by sprinting 10 or 15 yards. I've not seen this in a proper game yet.

It also might explain why we often see our creative 'crew' stuck within 3 yards of each other during a game meaning they are easy to mark and the switch of play or surprise reverse pass is never ever on.

Am I imagining this issue Doug?

Mostly yes you are imagining it. When they play the "game" at the end of the session it might not be 11 v 11 on a full size pitch but it is not tippy tappy either.It's on half a full size pitch and it's played seriously with lots of aggression and intent and plenty of movement. Prior to that they will have other exercises based on passing and moving but they also involve serious closing down of players on the ball and always options of switching the play with longer passes when the "defence" has closed it all down.

From what I hear all clubs (most certainly) do much of their practice games as small sided on smaller pitches.

The great Liverpool team, famed for its pass and move football, trained 5 a side all the time.

Thanks for this Doug.

Great to know that Scapuzzimancini has been rewarded for his fantastic performances with the EDS by getting to train with the first team.