Assistant Manager Chris Beech admitted that the pre-season trip to Tenerife is “going better than expected” as the lads got ready to tackle day five of the schedule.
Speaking to Dale Player, he commented: “You can plan as much as you like but the players make the sessions no matter what you plan. They’ve really committed to the programme with everything they’ve got.
“We’ve evolved our training sessions [this year] and it’s something you have to do to keep improving yourself. You’ve got to re-invent yourself at times, while remembering the traits and principles that stand you in good stead to make them better.
“We reviewed last season and we’re obviously pleased with how successful it was, but as a product we want to make it better.”
And Beech explained a bit about the morning session that the lads were about to complete.
“It’s possession based then we’ll go into 11v11s, but we’re going to throw different scenarios at the players.
“They’ll have to deal with different aspects, whether that’s a scoreline, or we may just bring three or four players off one team so that they’re down on numbers. It’s about giving them a pressure and physical pressure to deal with.”
He continued: “The motivation for a footballer is a football and what we’re doing is not hidden running, it’s the way that we want to play. We want to dominate our opponents, both with and without the ball.
“Like we’ve often repeated, you can only be three things. We want to be the best on that football in League One, we want to be the best at getting back and we want to be the most concentrated team in and out of possession. We basically work on them three things in different ways every day, but that keeps the lads motivated. They are really committing physically and mentally to the programme.”
The full interview is available to view on Dale Player.