Another windy rainy day at Carrington. Neil (NMT on BM) joined me to battle the conditions so I have decided to be a little bit lazy and borrow his post today , cheers Neil.
Popped along today as my mucker DH had confirmed that they would be training today.
Firstly i'm grateful to Land, who has been taking the recent pictures and posting Doug's reports across, he has also left some string attached to the fence so it makes it a bit easier to see, as they were behind the iron curtain again today.
I took time to go and watch the keepers, Hart, Given and Taylor were being put through their paces by Massimo, some interesting drills including one where he puts cones on the floor and uses them to deflect the ball when shooting, this obviously has a big impact on the keepers reactions and they all seem to enjoy it, a really good spirit between them three.
DH was already watching the team train, when i went back, we watched the usual short sided games and then Mancini took what looked like his team to another pitch to work very briefly on tactics and defending and attacking corners, they didn't spend too long at these drills.
The team looks like it will be: Hart, Zab, Boyata, Kompany, Bridge, Yaya, NDJ, Barry, Silva, Jo, Tevez, well that was the 11 he took to the other pitch.
Back they went into a full game, a corner resulting in a penalty instead, NDJ was good today, Michael Johnson looks in fantastic condition and was involved in all the session.
They were on the coach at 1.30 to the airport, so the session finished around 12.10
The one real negative and it's a moan, me and DH are stood on our bits and pieces to scramble a view, the team start to come out and in waltz around 7 cameramen and film crews including Sky, why shouldn't DH have access, i go along once in a Bluemoon (excuse the pun) as work has taken over recently, but for DH not to have some sort of view is wrong, the club seem on a massive charm offensive with the press, launching movies, schmoozing the papers, they should remember that the true message to us the fans, where there isn't any bullshit or things made up come from Doug and my reports, it gives you guys a true feel for what's happening every day.
The weather was awful again but it was a nice change to see training rather than reading about it.
Not a lot to add but I would agree totally that the spirit seemed great.Right at the start of one of the games as the ball was thrown in by Kidd to set it off Nigel just grabbed Vieira and threw him to the floor. Just like a big kid but very funny to watch.Watching Johnno today and you could be forgiven thinking he might be ready to play a sub role but I don't think so yet. I expect he is a month away from that yet in his recovery plan but the signs are good. He does almost everything he can in a game but as yet I havent really seen him challenging for balls too seriously.
With Silva expected to play on Thursday I am going to back him to score.His touch really is good and as he nears full fitness I think he will start to make a real impact now. Although it is an away game I expect both full backs to be encouraged to get forward with Barry and Yaya tucking in.
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