Training report: 22 August
- Wed 22 Aug 2012, 3:31PM
- Posted by David Clayton
City staged split training sessions for Wednesday with separate groups in the morning and the full squad enjoying a work-out in the afternoon.
The day began with some early bleep tests near the all-weather pitch with the early arivals such as Edin Dzeko and Gael Clichy among the first to visit the conditioning team. The keepers went their own way with Massimo Battara and Joe Hart followed his own personal path to greatness, dribbling a ball along the stone track to the designated pitch.
The defence had an interesting session, based mainly on positional play and moving together as a unit. Bearing in mind the Blues have conceded six goals in their last three competitive games - which all ended in 3-2 victories - Roberto Mancini seems keen to keep a tighter ship for the trip to Liverpool on Sunday.
While Nigel de Jong and Yaya Toure proved they are prepared to fight for first-team football with a friendly tussle before the midfielders' session began, the Manchester blue sky finally gave way to a brief but heavy shower.
Mancini was, as ever, very hands-on with each out-field drill and happy to demonstrate his instructions with the odd dash here, the odd sprint there. As the rain fell, Carlos Tevez and David Silva watched on in - is that awe? Tevez later was interviewed for Sky Sports TV so keep an eye for that in the next few days.
Tevez looked razor sharp in the finishing session the lasted perhaps 20 minutes and is just one goal shy of his 50th for City in the Premier League - Liverpool beware...
It was great to see Gareth Barry back in action as he builds up towards match fitness once again following his lengthy injury lay-off. The England midfielder is probably a couple of weeks away from a first-team return, though he was moving freely and looking sharp.
Either way, the boss kept a close eye on his charge's progress. On split sessions, some of the players stay in their training kit, but most shower and go home to relax or sleep for a few hours. Either way. The Premeir League champions are looking good for the challenge ahead.
