A bit of a good news bad news day today.It started really badly when I was told that Silva had a foot in a cast on Monday which really conerned me. Total crap though as Silva was out as normal and looked absolutely fine.In fact they were all out with the exception of Tevez and Michael Johnson. I did get a few words with David Platt and he confirmed Tevez got a bad dead leg on Sunday and he is a real doubt for Saturday. He thinks he would have been ok for a Sunday game but iffy for Saturday. MJ has had a setback but nothing to do with his past injury. I think he intimated it was a hamstring type injury and it's just the sort of thing that can so easily happen when coming back from a bad injury like he had.
Kole and Zaba were both back working with the group although when they all played some football those 2 were kept out to work closely with Carminati. He worked them pretty hard too and my guess is both will be available for Saturday providing of course there is no reaction to training. Watching the keepers for a while was good fun as Massimo was putting them through it. One exercise had the keeper at the near post for a low cross and then up quickly to save a shot at the other post. Massimo has a strong shot too so saving his shot was far from easy and I think he likes scoring:) To be fair he encourages and praises them a lot but he does expect 100% all the time. The cameras were on them and I think Stu Taylor might just have edged it in best shot for a picture.
The rest split into two groups after a while with one lot just doing fitness exercises and the others doing a fun routine which involved some running in and around some poles ( no jokes please) and then attacking across from David Platt and then turning to another goal and a pass which they had to score from.Some of Platty's crosses weren't great but my vote for best finisher went to Boateng but overall Shay won the contest. Micah probably was the worst finisher although Milner didn't hit the target very often..
After that routine Mancini took them all behind a fence to work on various team plays.Unusual for him to take everyone and I couldnt see what they worked at. Again just Zaba and Kolo left out but they were worked hard on a variety of exercises.
The it was back out for a final small pitch 10 a side game and along with Zaba and Kolo , NDJ missed this. I actually saw Mancini tell Nigel to go in at this point so maybe he had a slight niggle or something. Lombardo shouted to Nigel as he sloped off (it really seemed to me that Nigel was disappointed at having to miss out) and got the finger in return.
Nothing really to report from this game. Yaya got a knock when I think somebody stood on his toe. No sympathy given and he was fine. Ade tried to get around Lescott and hit the deck screaming for a pen. Again no sympathy.Micah gave away a pen for hand ball on the line. Mancini gave the pen and a red card to Micah who could be heard shouting, look at the video:)
Mario took the pen and sent Joe the wrong way. He took another pen shortly after and Joe went the right way but Mario really hit this one and Joe had no chance.
All in all a good session only slightly spoiled by loads of oiks on school hols and constantly asking players for a ball or their hat or boots or anything.The last 4 out were RSC,AJ ,Mario and Kolarov. RSC finishing from crosses from AJand the other 2 practicing free kicks.Neither of them were great but Kolarov gets great band and dip on his and was getting mighty close when Mancini called them all in.
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