A fairly quiet day at Carrington but at least in decent weather.The players came out in a mixture of blue and yellow tops which made me wonder and my suspicions were confirmed immediately after the Peller's briefing when all the ones in blue went inside.They were basically the ones who played the full game v Chelsea so clearly care is being taken with the regular players to not overdo it.
No doubt they would work on some stuff inside.The only 2 from the team who stayed out were Silva and Zaba but they only did some jogging around with a physio.Sadly the curtains had to go up today as paps were around.Prior to that though I got the impression there was a good buzz amongst the players which carried on through the session I watched.
Getting his constitutional as he does very often was skipper Tony Book and after a few laps he stayed around to watch.Would love to know his thoughts on this squad.Anyway there were just 10 outfield players remaining which quickly became 9 taking part in all the usual warm up jogs,stretching a short sharp fitness routines.
Then it was into keep ball circles which MP took an even closer interest in than usual.One of the keepers joined in, taking it in turn, and Micah enjoyed taking Joe out in one tackle.MP was shouting ( as much as he does) encouragement and instructions before a quick break more stretches and then into one larger circle for all 10 players.Comedy moments involving Alex and Micah as Costel was called over to join in.MP was really working them hard to get the closing down done and especially so when the ball was switched to the furthest point to get the 3 in the middle to turn and press quickly and together.
I just did an hour before leaving and the circle work was still going on. A word for the keepers as they were working closest to me and working hard and very well often drawing a little applause from the watching crowd.That's Les Chapman and a security guy! As I left I got a quick look at two players working away with physios. Javi Garcia and Samir Nasri. Samir looking especially good to me.I could see 2 weeks being at least a possibility as his movement and flexibility ( at least to my untrained eye) was more than I would have expected.