MCFC training report 10/02/2012

Bloody freezing out there today. Seeing them all coming out and gethering was interesting. Suarez early on chatting to Lescott, Barry with Zaba, Edin with Aleks, Vinnie with Milner. Especially good to see Silva chatting with Suarez and Joleon seemed to be chatting with everyone. Typically when he got to Micah the laugher really started. It took Edin to suggest they got on with it as it was so cold so when Mario arrived Mancini got them together for the initial briefing (unusual for Mario to be last as he is normally out very early).

Early warm up jogigng followed by Mancini taking all the defenders away to work with leaving the rest to split into two groups for attacking work. Two deeper midfield players spreading the ball wide for crosses to be attacked and other variations of play. Suarez, Roman and Razak involved today but no Rekik after his starring role yesterday at the EDS game nor Helan. Aguero looked very good in this session and not just because of his City snood.

From there they went into an attack v defence game 10 v 9. The defending part is obvious but once they had won the ball they also looked to keep it as much as possible and move forward. Strange one in this as the keeper sent over made a slight mistake and Mancini quickly asked for him to be changed. The first goal was a blatant off side albeit disputed as if they didnt think offside should be allowed. 5 minutes into this and the teams changed around. Mancini was looking for good pressing of the ball but at the same time ensuring the team retained it's shape. Finally a goal came and great work from Silva as so often is the case as he set Joan Roman free for a neat sidefoot finish.

As this part finished 3 players jogged past to start work with a physio. De Silva (I think) Hargreaves and surprise surprise Michael Johnson. They then split into groups for some prolonged shooting practice at each end of the pitch which made it hard to keep track on things. Zaba scored first and followed with a noisy celebration, then Costel saved well from Edin, blocked the rebound but Edin netted the 2nd rebound and their banter that followed sounded interesting! Micah and Joleon were not invloved in this but working together and Vinnie was doing some specific fitness exercises on his own. Silva's finishing was getting better, Aguero managed the perfect chip, Mario was looking very determined and Suarez got a nosebleed :)

So onto the game. Kolarov scored a simple but excellent goal. Looked offside and there were loud appeals but he got the run just right as did Pizarro with the pass. Mario was playing as left back part of the time and then in one foray forward shot just over and then threw his hat to the floor and abused it!:) The equalising goal came from some fast intricate work between Nigel, Roman and Edin and the ball just fell for Edin to sweep home. Golden goal time and it didnt take long when Silva took a pass from Roman and with seemingly little space showed remarkable composure to sidefoot home.

75 minutes worth today and did I mention it was cold? I think the guy stood with me was suffering from hypothermia. I had 2 coats, 2 pairs of gloves, 2 jumpers, 2 scarves and I was still freezing and he had one coat (yes I did offer).