Training Tuesday 8/3

[Douglas Higginbottom]

A lovely day and a change in the training approach from recent weeks. It was a strong session today and actually included a decent spell of 2 teams against each other on a full pitch!

At the start Mario was out early with Jo and to pass a few moments Mario decided to have a wrestling bout with the doc:) Only one winner there and of course captured by the vulture photographers so no doubt you will see a picture or 2 in the tabloids,Hopefully with a sensible tagline.The players were all wearing light grey tops today (are they new?) and SWP's definitely looked a tad large and certainly not tailor made for him. I mentioned this too him and all he said was "you should see the one I have on underneath"

17 players on show today (18 with Joe) and missing were AJ ( he was out later working hard on 1 to 1 and looking pretty good to me),Milner also out later and Boateng.His wife is due to give birth any minute.Kolo was involved in training today and came close enough for me to give him some positive words of encouragement.

After some initial jogging/stretching it was a 3 touch game with 5 or 6 sets of poles around which they were supposed to pass the ball through whenever they could.All looked a bit manic to me but I guess someone was keeping score. Strange though that they played this with 10 against 8 ( Lombardo joining in) Not sure if that was by design or in error but it made a hell of a difference in which team kept the ball most of the time.Then into series of fitness routines and even from those I could see more life in the work than I have for previous weeks.

Then off behind a fence and into a match. As I said a very rare occasion where it was 10 against 10, even if one of the team included Lombardo,Fausto and Platt.Interesting to watch this and Mancini stayed on the pitch but just had a very close watching brief without stopping proceedings except to change players at times.

After a break for drinks they made the pitch half sized and had another gameA nice first goal from Tevez was greeted with roars of approval from Joe Hart at the other end and then Yaya scored from a saved Tevez shot and he proceeded to run off and jump into one of the physios arms.Then it was Silva's turn to get one back with a great first touch to a through ball and excellent finish. Then Mario equalised.He hadnt done much but it was a good instinctive finish. Inevitably it came down to golden goal time and it went to SWP with a deflected shot.

That was almost that and as they went in Stu Taylor was called back as one player wanted a keeper to help him as he stayed for more work.That player was Nigel. Carlos also stayed but only to watch and do some warm down exercises. Nigel was basically picking the ball in the centre circle and running with it to play a wall pass off someone on the edge of the box before going on to finish.I stayed for a while hoping to see a top corner curling shot but it wasnt to be so I gave up.Immediataly a heard a shout and some laughter but apparently all I missed was a fresh air shot.AJ mentioned as I left that I would have to wait all day for a Nigel goal.

[john@staustell]

Nigel - LOL!

Good to hear it was a good session. I had visions of them all being wheeled out in the care of nurses, on saline drips between matches.

Thanks Doug.

[ant london]

shall i ask the usual question or leave it to someone else?

[john@staustell]

shall i ask the usual question or leave it to someone else?

Did OK but went in after half an hour. May be on the bench. (????)

:-)

[BadKompany]

Cheers Doug,great news regarding injuries apparently clearing up.

edited.......

[Douglas Higginbottom]

shall i ask the usual question or leave it to someone else?

No sign at all

[Beefymcfc]

Cheers Doug, I've missed your reports of late and good to see that there's been a decent session.

[Ted Hughes]

'they played this with 10 against 8'


Practice in case Mario gets his next red card when Jo is already on.

[Beefymcfc]

'they played this with 10 against 8'


Practice in case Mario gets his next red card when Jo is already on.

That's big odds.

[blue wine]

thanks doug

who's wive is due to give birth any minute, millners or boa?

doug are u feeling confident about thursday after seeing them today?

[BobKowalski]

...and just when I though Mancini would show a sense on humour and have them come into the training session all listless and lethargic with some on their mobiles to the Samaritans unable to cope with the managements negative vibes :)

But I reckon its odds on that Mancini will shake his head and talk about the fixture pile up, tiredness and his injury decimated squad in the pre match presser. The scamp.

[Original Dub]

...and just when I though Mancini would show a sense on humour and have them come into the training session all listless and lethargic with some on their mobiles to the Samaritans unable to cope with the managements negative vibes :)

But I reckon its odds on that Mancini will shake his head and talk about the fixture pile up, tiredness and his injury decimated squad in the pre match presser. The scamp.

No, he'll be stood there like Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday pumping them up for the next game of course.

Will our winner of a manager.

[13021J]

Doug do you know the plans for next day or so i.e are they flying out tomorrow?

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Doug do you know the plans for next day or so i.e are they flying out tomorrow?

Yes flying tomorrow and I think after training in the morning.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

...and just when I though Mancini would show a sense on humour and have them come into the training session all listless and lethargic with some on their mobiles to the Samaritans unable to cope with the managements negative vibes :)

But I reckon its odds on that Mancini will shake his head and talk about the fixture pile up, tiredness and his injury decimated squad in the pre match presser. The scamp.

He has been reading this and other forums and realised what the majority have said about tiredness and changed his approach as a result.Good for him to recognise his error and get it into them that they are not tired at all and start showing some energy:) We just need it in games now.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

thanks doug

who's wive is due to give birth any minute, millners or boa?

doug are u feeling confident about thursday after seeing them today?

JB's wife.
It did give me some confidence yes.I wasn't totally convinced that no training was the way to go even though the games were comimg thick and fast.Understandable to a point of course and also there was the potential to pick up injuries as well which we couldnt/cant' afford.The worry for me was that they might get into a mindset of taking it easy and doing things at a slow tempo which I would say is the last thing we want.

As for Thursday I am not convinced we will win although another guy watching is 100% convinced it will be 2.1 for us in Kiev.I hope for a draw but think we might lose but win the tie overall and in between dispose of Reading.

[BobKowalski]

...and just when I though Mancini would show a sense on humour and have them come into the training session all listless and lethargic with some on their mobiles to the Samaritans unable to cope with the managements negative vibes :)

But I reckon its odds on that Mancini will shake his head and talk about the fixture pile up, tiredness and his injury decimated squad in the pre match presser. The scamp.

He has been reading this and other forums and realised what the majority have said about tiredness and changed his approach as a result.Good for him to recognise his error and get it into them that they are not tired at all and start showing some energy:) We just need it in games now.

Well we are definitely screwed if Mancini is taking advice from the football geniuses on here! :)

[Crossie]

its great the players seem to recognise you now Doug

[Douglas Higginbottom]

its great the players seem to recognise you now Doug

Recognise me as what though:)

[Ted Hughes]

...and just when I though Mancini would show a sense on humour and have them come into the training session all listless and lethargic with some on their mobiles to the Samaritans unable to cope with the managements negative vibes :)

But I reckon its odds on that Mancini will shake his head and talk about the fixture pile up, tiredness and his injury decimated squad in the pre match presser. The scamp.

He has been reading this and other forums and realised what the majority have said about tiredness and changed his approach as a result.Good for him to recognise his error and get it into them that they are not tired at all and start showing some energy:) We just need it in games now.

Well we are definitely screwed if Mancini is taking advice from the football geniuses on here! :)

Genii.