By MARK ALFORD
Guess what Roberto Mancini and Jose Mourinho want for Christmas?
A ‘Footbonaut’. Yes a Footbonaut – we’ve not made it up.
It could be the secret to Borussia Dortmund’s success. It’s a training device which has helped the German champions run rings around City, Real and Ajax. Crucially, leaving them unbeaten in the Champions League. Jose, Roberto, Sportsmail gives you the ‘Footbonaut’.
And we even sent Jamie Redknapp to have a go on a scaled-down version.
The ‘Footbonaut’ is the must-have training aid for all aspiring tika-taka maestros and Sportsmail columnist Redknapp tested an early version of it at adidas’s HQ in Germany in May this year (see panel below).
Dortmund’s version comprises a ball-feeding machine erected on a 14 metre square grid. The wannabe-Iniesta takes his place in a centre circle and the ball is fed randomly to him at a variety of heights and angles.
The player must then control the ball and deliver it to one of 64 targets within the cube. the target is identified by the lighting up of the square surround.
All the action is filmed and analysed instantly. The results are transmitted directly onto a coach’s iPad.
The adidas device which former pass-master and England midfielder Redknapp tested had four targets. He was two seconds off the record, which impressed the adidas boffins!
Dortmund have been tipped by Sir Alex Ferguson, no less, to challenge for the European crown this year and who can argue as they top Group D, which was dubbed the ‘group of death’ when drawn in August.
JAMIE REDKNAPP SAYS …
It was great fun and really got you up to match tempo quickly. It forced you to get your head up, open out your stance and switch on.
Unlike Dortmund’s ‘Footbonaut’, the one at adidas had four panels, which you had to play the ball against when the light on top switched on.
You couldn’t move on until you’d struck the correct panel and you always used the same ball. It soon had you blowing.
You had to be accurate, confident in your own ability and on your toes, ready to spring in any direction.
It was a really good laugh.
It was hard on your legs and made you think ahead. The best midfielders play with wing-mirrors on and this device helps develop those skills.
I wish we’d had stuff like this when I was still playing… I was told I was two seconds shy of the adidas record score. Not bad for an old pundit with dodgy knees, eh?
