MCFC Training Report 3/12/2013

Today's training report courtesy of Doug Higginbottom

Back again at Carrington with the training done behind the curtain and very hard to make out individual players as they gathered about 100 yards away.Big group though to start with and possibly all players apart from Nastasic.I counted 21 and I don't think there were any of the young boys which has been the case in recent sessions.From Inside City I saw Pozo,Leigh,Huws in one session and I know Brandon Barker was involved yesterday as those who played v Swansea would not have done a full session.Excellent to involved the good young players whenever possible.

Although a long way away the vibe from the group sounded really good. Plenty of noise,laughter and banter.Silva and Kompany were definitely there at the start although after initial jogs and stretches Silva was working with a physio and jogging and I was told Vinnie was doing his own work out with another physio.Clichy was also separate doing some running.The rest gathered and did some passing work in big circles and then broke into 3 groups to do some intricate passing and running between the groups.

Pellegrini then got them all together to work as attack and defence against a variety of corners and free kicks taken by either Milner or Kolarov.Looked really competitive too as Pellegrini was emphasising the importance of getting onto the 2nd ball and the "attack" wasn't dead until a defender properly cleared the ball.Kolarov chased one ball out and ended the attack as he scythed the attacker down near the center circle.

This part of the session was quite a long one with all types of crosses fired in.Mostly the defence won the day but there were some good attacking moments as well.Yaya thought his team had scored when he volleyed one from his deep back post position which was deflected in but Kidd had his flag up for offside to anger the attacking side.A number of the fast bending free kicks were fired in.One headed just wide at the near post,one flicked just past the back post and just the one which evaded them all to go in at the far post. Both keepers made some great saves and the pick would be one from Joe where he was flying back across goal to claw out a ball knocked back across him.Each team took it's turn on attacking and Pellegrini was keeping score on which team was winning and this carried on into the next session which was shooting from the edge of the area.

Not that many scored from the edge of the box partly down to poor efforts and partly because we have 2 top keepers.I only had to get one ball from the field!Kun scored with a beauty as did Jesus,Aleks and Joleon.In the 2nd attempts from them all Aleks,Jesus and Joleon again with Joleon's being one of those which hits the post and then smacks the keeper in the back to go in.Also scoring were Garcia and Dzeko and one or two I couldnt make out.I think the score was 7.4 as they moved onto a round of penalties.

Kun scored with the perfect shot and was followed by the worst attempt of the lot by Pablo.It nearly made the field but certainly made them all laugh a lot.Milner's was a beauty and for some reason Micah called him a shit bag! He also used those kind words when Joleon scored his:) Dedryk ( I think) was asked to retake his so dinked his 2nd str8 down the middle.Yaya tried something similar,sent the keeper the wrong way but hit the post.6 others missed but best not to mention too many and the overall losing team had to do press ups as their forfeit before going in.

Although not the clearest best viewing it was a good session to watch as the main work was at my end and it was great to see the group enjoying their work and being competitive all the way through. I think Vinnie was fully involved in the attack v defence work but not Silva. As I was leaving I saw Jovetic working outside with a physio and looking close to being ready for full training.