Javi, how was your holiday? Did you have time to relax? 

I spent my holiday in Spain near Seville, my wife's hometown us and our daughters were in Cadiz too, on the south of the peninsula. There's a beach, the sea. We didn't do much more. I spend a lot of time away from Spain, so when I have a holiday, I want to be there. 

Today is the fourth day of the camp and the team are doing a lot of running, how's it all going? 

Yes, this is normal, preseason running is a mandatory part of the training and all are well aware of it. We have to do it to compensate for the three weeks away. So it is necessary for us so we can do our job and get ready for the new season. 

We saw in the second training session the team began to work on tactics. Is this typical for Mancini? 

Yes, he wants to give us his ideas as quickly as possible and to build the team's collective movement. I think this is the right direction, you may have a set of very strong players, but first and foremost you have to be a team, to play together. If it all comes together the team will win. 

Yesterday morning, after a run you gave blood. What is this for? 

This is a medical test for the doctors to see how our fitness is. 

You're the only player in the team, who has worked with Mancini before. How did you feel about his appointment? 

Yes, I was happy, it's always nice to work with a coach, whom you have known for a long time. He oversaw my transfer from Benfica to Manchester City. I'm glad to get the opportunity to work with Mancini and his coaching staff again. 

How do you describe his style? 

First of all, he wants to see a united team on the pitch, he wants to achieve this with a compact style of play, wants everything covered. All of these things are the most important things in modern football. For example, look at Atletico Madrid, they are compact, battling on the pitch, and it allows them to achieve success. 

Another change, the team is now having lunch and dinner together. Is this for discipline or team spirit? 

it is perfectly normal and I have always lived by this routine. We play together, live and communicate with each other. We are one family. So that's all right, we have breakfast, lunch or dinner all together, we have a great time, laughing and joking with each other. 

The team has a new defensive coach in Angelo Greguchchi, who you also know. Will things change in defence? 

I'll say to you the same as I said about Roberto Mancini, whose ideas Greguchchi passes on to us, we have to act as a team. Ahead of us are some great attacking players, so us players in defence have to not let the opponent get the ball. 

Do you know who will be captain now Danny has gone? 

No, we have not discussed this yet. 

Did you manage to say goodbye to him? 

Yes, I messaged him and phoned him. He was a little upset, because he has spent a lot of time in St. Petersburg, he and his family fell in love with this city. But that's life, it remains only to thank Zenit for his part in the last nine years. 

Have you watched any of the Confederations Cup so far? 

Yes, I watched today's match between Portugal and Mexico. It's great that such a large tournament takes place in Russia. Now we have a new stadium where we two matches will be, and the arena is excellent. The only bad thing is that we cannot see watch the games at the Confederations Cup live in person, but I hope that next summer we will see one or two matches in the World Cup. 

Everyone is talking about the disallowed goal in the Portugal and Mexico match and the ref using a video replay. What do you think about this new technology? 

I do not like this. If you score a goal and it's disallowed, perhaps this is not very fair, but then all the supporters are discussing what happened, sharing their opinions and arguing about the game. Now in football there are different things like video replays, and it deprives us of some emotions.