LondonLax Posted September 24, 2010 Share Posted September 24, 2010 Mancini complains that City are down to 11 fit players. My heart bleeds. "Boateng has not featured at all since his summer move from Hamburg after aggravating a knee injury when he was accidentally struck by an in-flight meal trolley." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted September 24, 2010 Moderator Share Posted September 24, 2010 It's not clear whether the trolley was trying to get away from Gareth Barry at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted September 24, 2010 Share Posted September 24, 2010 As if they have flying meal trolleys. They really do pull out all the stops! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted September 24, 2010 Moderator Share Posted September 24, 2010 It seems as though their injury problems may not be down to bad luck either. Ex-coach attacks Roberto Mancini's 'crazy' training at Manchester City Roberto Mancini's training methods at Manchester City have come under renewed scrutiny amid allegations that he is overworking his players and subjecting them to the possibility of unnecessary injury as well as potentially costing the club millions of pounds. Carlos Tevez, the City captain, and Craig Bellamy, now on loan at Cardiff City, both questioned Mancini's training regime last season and the latest criticism comes from the club's former conditioning expert, Raymond Verheijen, reflecting on "the enormous amount of injuries at Manchester City" and speaking of his hope that "Mancini will finally question his training methods". Verheijen was employed by City under the previous manager, Mark Hughes, and continued at Eastlands for the first part of Mancini's reign. He was the performance manager for South Korea at the World Cup and has also worked with the Dutch and Russian national teams as well as several clubs, including Zenit St Petersburg and Barcelona, establishing a reputation as one of the more authoritative voices in his business. In a series of messages on Twitter today the Dutchman expressed his misgivings about Mancini subjecting players to "over-use damage" and drew a direct correlation with City's injury problems going into the game against Chelsea on Saturday, when they will have up to seven established players missing. "I really feel sorry for [the] Man City players. They are having a difficult time. Hopefully none of them will suffer a career threatening injury," he wrote A City spokesman said: "Mr Verheijen appears to have become a regular critic of Roberto Mancini's training methods, perhaps not entirely coincidentally since his consultancy services at Manchester City were terminated by the club several months ago. We wish him well in his future practice." Verheijen has spent two days working at Cardiff "for the next phase of rebuilding the physics of Craig Bellamy after his disastrous pre-season at Manchester City". He said: "We have almost repaired all the physical damage done to Craig in pre-season by our Italian friends at Manchester City. Thankfully, an explosive player like Craig was able to escape this training regime to save his career." The criticism follows a similar outburst in the latest edition of FC Business, the trade magazine for the football industry, in which Verheijen describes City under Hughes as "the fittest team in the best league in the world". He attributes this to his "gradual training" regime whereby players are spared long runs and double sessions in pre-season training and, in the case of Bellamy for example, work to individually tailored programmes, with lots of short bouts of high-intensity work. "During pre-season and the first half of last season Mark Hughes had all his players available," Verheijen said. "City played each game with the same team. The team had the best Prozone [computer data] statistics of the Premier League during the first part of the season. The players had the highest number of sprints and the highest total sprinting distance of all the Premier League teams. "After the arrival of Mancini things changed dramatically. He probably did not even look at the Prozone statistics and our best-injury record in the Premier League. He decided players had to do double sessions many times a week. Those sessions often lasted for two hours. Not surprisingly the players picked up eight soft-tissue injuries within the first two weeks of Mancini." Verheijen will inevitably attract allegations of having an axe to grind given that the change of manager eventually cost him his position, and there are obvious flaws in some of his criticisms, not least his assertion that Bellamy was able to play 43 consecutive games in succession under his guidance and also that City took a maximum 15 points from their first five games last season (they won their first five games but one of those was in the Carling Cup; they lost their fifth league game to Manchester United). Mancini could also cite the fact that three of his injured players – Mario Balotelli, Jérôme Boateng and Aleksandar Kolarov – have scarcely trained at City since their arrival in the summer. His policy is to organise double sessions every Tuesday, as long as there is no midweek match, and he has made it clear he will not change. But Verheijen believes it is "crazy" to work the players so hard and blamed City's injury record under Mancini for their failure to qualify for the Champions League. "The benefits for the clubs are quite clear. Less injuries mean less money lost. In modern football lots of money is still lost because of the methods of coaches. Manchester City is the perfect example. "In the second half of last season City had a dreadful injury record which has cost the club an enormous lot of money. Club directors should be aware that 90% of injuries in football can be avoided. They should raise the bar within their organisation to demand more professional training methods." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Designer1 Posted September 24, 2010 VT Supporter Share Posted September 24, 2010 It's not clear whether the trolley was trying to get away from Gareth Barry at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted September 24, 2010 Moderator Share Posted September 24, 2010 I really do hope they get smashed by Chelsea at the weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFC-Prideofbrum Posted September 24, 2010 Share Posted September 24, 2010 Aye. Come on Didier and Florent. 0-4, 2 goals each! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFC-Prideofbrum Posted September 24, 2010 Share Posted September 24, 2010 Mancini comments simply trying to take pressure off him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villadude Posted September 24, 2010 Share Posted September 24, 2010 I hope they get raped by Chelski this weekend, hope they pick up another couple of injuries too whilst they're at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted September 24, 2010 Share Posted September 24, 2010 couple of injuriesMilner and Barry please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoccerHQ Posted September 25, 2010 Share Posted September 25, 2010 Will comfortably finish top 4 this season. Was surprised people were writing them off against Chelsea today, turned them over twice last season so have the sign over them now and Chelsea were going to drop points sooner rather than later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted September 27, 2010 Share Posted September 27, 2010 Will comfortably finish top 4 this season. Was surprised people were writing them off against Chelsea today, turned them over twice last season so have the sign over them now and Chelsea were going to drop points sooner rather than later. Turned them over twice last season... and yet they didn't finish 4th then. Man City put in a performance against bigger teams but not against the smaller teams. I'm still hopeful that they won't crack the top 4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted September 27, 2010 Share Posted September 27, 2010 I think Citeh will finish top 4 but no higher. At moment they have a team that can produce vs big teams but struggle against the lesser lights as more difficult to break down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shillzz Posted September 27, 2010 Share Posted September 27, 2010 Is "Being Struck by an inflight meat trolley" some kind of euphemism? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrissmith921 Posted September 27, 2010 Share Posted September 27, 2010 I think Citeh will finish top 4 but no higher. At moment they have a team that can produce vs big teams but struggle against the lesser lights as more difficult to break down. So not higher than 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th? How exactly can you finish higher than that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted September 27, 2010 Share Posted September 27, 2010 I think Citeh will finish top 4 but no higher. At moment they have a team that can produce vs big teams but struggle against the lesser lights as more difficult to break down. So not higher than 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th? How exactly can you finish higher than that? i meant no higher than 4th :oops: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted September 27, 2010 Share Posted September 27, 2010 I think City will give Arsenal a run for third myself. Man United don't look like an unstoppable force when Rooney is off form either. Perhaps they could even stay on their tail also? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted September 27, 2010 Share Posted September 27, 2010 I think they will actually challenge for the title Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMilnereatsnails Posted September 27, 2010 Share Posted September 27, 2010 I think they will actually challenge for the title If they can stay in touch with Chelsea until Christmas, then spend another £100m they could have a chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted September 27, 2010 Moderator Share Posted September 27, 2010 I think they will actually challenge for the title I'm starting to think that as well, they aren't a long way off and I don't mean just in points. Man Utd's team is fading and City are on the up, I don't think they need £100m spent in January to give them a chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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