Manager Keith Hill spoke to Dale PlayerHD ahead of the final pre-season fixture of the summer...
Rochdale head to Broadhurst Park on Saturday to take on FC United of Manchester in the last friendly before the 2016-17 campaign gets underway.
Hill explains what he hopes to get out of the game.
“A clean bill of health, to be honest. That’s what you’re looking for going into an intense week of training in preparation. It’s the final week and it’s the countdown before the league fixtures start.
“We’ve already been planning for Peterborough and beyond. The scouting missions and the tactical birds-eye view of the opposition have started - who plays where, the systems that they’ve been employing etc. You look at it now and I suppose I get a real understanding of which way Grant [McCann, Posh Manager] is going and vice-versa. He'll know which I'm going.
“It’s difficult to recreate what you expect to be done on the opening day of the season but I feel as though our plans have gone really well. Like I said before pre-season started, it’s good to experience every type of result and performance to see how everybody reacts.
“It’s the bad habits that we’re trying to break and hide, because we are all habitual and it’s difficult to break those typical habits once you’ve got them, especially the bad ones.
"That’s why it’s so difficult for people to give up smoking and drinking etc. It’s just the same in footballing habits – those bad habits are difficult to break but that’s what we’re trying to do, especially with the younger players.”
The interview is on Dale PlayerHD.