Excerpts from the Article:
By 7.30am on most weekday mornings the hood of Sir Alex Ferguson's car is already stone cold. It's nothing to do with the invariably inclement Manchester weather, of course, but all to do with the fact that the manager has been perched at his desk for half an hour already. And he's not alone.
After more than two decades in the job Ferguson leaves the planning and execution of United's training sessions to his assistant manager, Carlos Queiroz, and first-team coach, Mike Phelan. They, together with the goalkeeping coach Tony Coton, fitness coach Tony Strudwick and skills coach Rene Meulensteen, put the players through their paces on a daily basis while Ferguson monitors developments.
Some commitment eh?
The players arrive at around 9.30am, half an hour before training starts, but the coaching staff meet well in advance of every session to organise each day's bespoke training programme. The club's medical staff are also consulted to highlight players' knocks and injuries.
Rooney's Recovery from injuries at breakneck pace speaks volumes. Arsenal are you listening? Robin Van Persie seems to be out for ages...
The training programme for the week, otherwise known as the microcycle, is determined by the amount of games we have in a week," says Strudwick. "The day after a game, often Sunday, will usually be a rest day for everyone or a recovery day for those who have played. The first three days of the following week - Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - involve a lot of hard work on the players' part. In terms of fitness training, the squad will spend some time in the gym working on building up their strength on the Monday. The following day they will focus on aerobic work to help increase their endurance and on the third day they will spend time on speed work. We then start to reduce the physical pressure and intensity on the players in order to help them start preparing themselves for the game on the Saturday. We will also look at some injury prevention methods. The day before a match the players will take part in a standard training session, which lasts no longer than an hour. We try to make everything short and sharp and to help improve the neuromuscular activity so the players are ready."
End the day with fun...
The final drill in training is usually a match of between seven and 10 a side, depending on how bare or crowded the treatment room is looking. "Some of us will swap positions during five-a-side games - the defenders might play up front and vice versa," says Fletcher. "Rio fancies himself in the free role behind the striker, while goalkeeper Tom Heaton surprised us on one occasion when he played outfield as he went and scored a hat-trick."
"Sometimes I play up front when we're having a joke around during a mini-match," chips in Nemanja Vidic. "I actually started out as a right-winger, then I went to right-back before I finally became a central defender. I remember playing on the left wing during one training session - Cristiano took my place in central defence. I felt good on the left wing. I didn't score but I made one great run and put in a great cross but no one was there! I wasn't quite as good as Ronaldo but I wasn't bad either."
When it comes to United how can they not be mischievous?
The players are prone to moments of mischief. "You have to have your wits about you when Scholesy and Wazza [Wayne Rooney] are around," says Fletcher. "All the
balls that are dotted around the edge of the pitch will suddenly start flying past you. You can never relax during that period."
As I said RVP you listening?
Rooney remains committed to the pursuit of hyper-fitness, however, staying true
to the old "no pain, no gain" maxim. "You've got to do the work to get the best out of yourself in the games," he says. "You've got to be fit and I think now with the games getting quicker you've got to be able to run for 90 minutes. Whether it's high intensity or endurance you've got to do it and the only way you can do that for 90 minutes is by doing it in training through the week."
What we see on the pitch at the weekend is not all that these people are capable of...
A player might have possession for a few minutes during a match, they have the most intense contact with the ball during training sessions. This is the time when those lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Carrington will be privy to the players' repertoire of tricks.
"The older players in the latter stages of their careers have the skills, and the good thing is that you don't have to tell them when and where to use them," says Meulensteen. "They have the experience to know that, it's just whether they're comfortable with certain moves. With the young kids we give them all the optional moves and let them practise until they get to a point where they are naturally more
comfortable with one or two. With the first-team players you can look at them, let them do them and then quickly rule most of them out, get them to concentrate on specific ones they are comfortable with. "You can be very specific then. That's the core and what it will do is add something to the game where players look to have so much time on the ball, simply because they've found the right balance between popping the ball about nice and quickly and suddenly using a disguised piece of skill. Disguise is nothing else than making your opponent think you're going one way then, as soon as you've committed him, going the other.
Finally about the Gaffer himself:
The gaffer's the world's worst for that kind of thing. What the public sees is not what happens. The only problem with the manager is that he can't keep a straight face, he laughs too early and I tell him that. He gives it away. We have some great fun. We work hard through the week and a Friday night before a Saturday away game is usually the only time we're all sat down together. We have a meal with the manager. He'll be chatting and telling us the same story, except this time he's added something to it from two weeks ago, so you just act surprised and he doesn't realise.
To read the complete article visit: http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2220079,00.html
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