The good news as everybody weill see this afternoon is that Mancini was back at Carrington this morning. ( Kidd as well)
And close to a full compliment of players as well with the exceptions being Bridge and Zaba with a knock and strain from yesterday.Neither being serious.And MJ wasn't out again.
So normal service resumed today with Mancini taking the players through some of the old routines moving around the pitch together in formation and positions. When they did this it really drove home the size and quality of the squad.Then he took an 11 off behind a fence to work specifically with them and if that was the first team no real surprises to be seen and as you can imagine when I looked back at the rest of them it did look a good second team.
Apart from some forward play movement Mancini did some work on corners which involved Kolarov taking them all .Unlike at Dortmund he was missing the near post defender and one where Yaya and Kompany raced in but under the ball was met by Boateng on the volley with a great finish.Other ideas were being worked and a few defensive corners also practiced so they all knew their positions.
Mancini then swapped one team for another 11. Whilst he was doing this the rest were doing keep ball circles stuff and the laughter rang out at times which was good to hear. Generally the spirits around seemed pretty good and the best group always seemd to have SWP in it with his usual infectious grin.
A really tough passing game followed with a small group taken away to work on finishing. More for the keepers I think as the finishers were Nedum,Logan, Cunningham and Caicedo! Then the whole session finished with a 10 a side game which again was quite strong with a number of clashes leaving players limping.Nothing looked serious though but you could tell how much was going into it by most of the players by their reactions.No surprise Beller's voice could be heard easily but I think I actullay heard a strong reaction on a couple of occasions from Vieira and RSC which I don't think I have heard from them before. Good commitment all round.Kolo,Yaya,Vincent,Kolarov,Jo all missed out on the this final session. Yaya was getting some massage and stretching work done on him.The same work on me would have snapped me in half.
Shay was in the goal nearest to me and he was loud all the time , as he should be , but none more so than when a corner was headed in by an unmarked big Phil.The save Shay made turning a deflected shot onto the bar and away was exceptional.
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