Training report 12/09/2011

They did well to have a fairly normal session today given how strong the wind was. The nets were being blown around as they tried to set things up for the keep session so it was decided to leave them against the fencing and work there which was nice for us watching fans.

It was the same 20 outfield players as last week with Milner working separately with a physio after the initial chat from the boss. Mancini then worked with a team leaving the others to either play a keep ball circle or "do the hill". Not surprisingly it was all quite low key gentle stuff given the weekend game and the next one so close.Given that 3 games a week will be the norm for a while it will never be easy to throw in really tough sessions but plenty of recovery training days will be commonplace.Two groups in the end did a little work on the hill and they also did it running into the wind.

I wasn't expecting a game to end today's work but they did have on.None of the starters on Saturday took part though and the numbers were made up from the EDS lads.They included Nimley and the 2 Mancini brothers plus a triallist I don't know the name of.Most noticeable for me was Dzeko still looking extremely confident with a great touch in the wind and scoring two. Nimley also bagged a couple. Hargreaves was fully involved again as was Nedum.

Tough day for the keepers. Not just because of the strong swirling wind but also the coach was giving them a hard time and they were using the CL balls for the first time.Maybe it was just the wind but I thought they were swerving around all over the place. A different texture than the prem league balls I think. Looked more like basketball texture.