Crowds continued to gather at Manchester United’s training facility on Wednesday, as the Reds trained again at Carton House.
Tom Heaton has joined up with the rest of the squad after recovering from illness, bolstering Craig Mawson’s goalkeeping group to five, with Senne Lammens, Altay Bayindir, Dermot Mee and youngster Fred Heath already here.
While Patrick Chinazaekpere Dorgu continued to work on his rehabilitation separately, the remainder of the players were in the gym and then stepped out on to the grass for a brief warm-up, before getting into more in-depth tactical work.
As preparation for next week’s game against Leeds United at Old Trafford carried on, I had a word with some of the hundreds of keen, young supporters waiting outside for their idols.
“I love United more than anything else in the whole world,”
shouted one.
Another had a printout of a photo she’d snapped with Casemiro on Tuesday, while a couple of younger boys politely requested selfies with members of the media team.
It’s still the Easter holidays here in the Republic of Ireland, and there was a great array of United kits, past and present, on display, with some kids wearing strips that probably came out before they were born.
Meanwhile, back out on the pitches, and after the main session, an intense and competitive game of head tennis broke out, with Casemiro and Matheus Cunha taking on all-comers.
While obviously there’s more of a fun element at the end of the serious work, it’s still intriguing to watch and see how competitive footballers are – and just how good their touch can be, as they set each other up and continue seemingly endless rallies.
Eventually, Josh Zirkzee and Bruno Fernandes got the better of the Brazilian pair and it was winner stays on, so Manuel Ugarte and Kobbie Mainoo took over.
Director of football Jason Wilcox was among those watching on, but eventually the group dispersed, returning to the main hotel for lunch to a raucous reception, as we spoke to Jonny Evans about his transition from player to coach.
“We’ve been here quite a few weeks now as a coaching group and a lot of the stuff that we want to do is sort of in place,”
he said, when asked about balancing the workload.
“So it’s just reiterating a lot of things.
“I suppose a big part of coaching is trying to have the eye on when players need that, the real detail in the coaching, and when you can just let them have a bit of fun while keeping their fitness at the levels required as well.”
United will train again in Dublin on Thursday morning, when the rest of the Evans interview will be available to watch.
They will then travel back to Manchester in the afternoon.