Pre-season Objectives

First of all, thanks a lot to all players who showed dedication to the team by turning up today for the first pre-season game.



Pre-season friendlies should not be taken lightly if we want to come back from an otherwise unsuccessful campaign last season.



Despite the end of the last season, we will not be taking any break unless attendance tells us otherwise. There is no point getting friends and friends to fill up the vacated positions, as it is only a stopgap measure. It happened for a good number of games last season, and look how we struggled to get back our form even after everyone's back. The team should play regularly together since we do not have regular training sessions to begin with.



Even if we are weak in the area, it doesn't give us excuse not to practice more on areas including short passing (possesion style of play) and dead ball situations. It is agreed among the team that we will adopt a possession style with a hard-rock defence to wear opponents down before we do a counter. We have several talented attacking players, but it doesn't mean we don't make use of others who are less spectacular. Dribbling is acceptable but taking on more than 3 is generally not reccomended.



To summarise, I would like everyone to take note of the following areas to work on for the next few weeks.



1. Fitness

2. Passing

3. Set-piece

4. Individual discipline (including RSVP and coming on time)

5. Holding possession (we give away possession too cheaply)

6. Marking (simple 1 man to 1 man rule, e.g. RM to opponent's LB)

7. Match discipline (including and not limited to positional and style of play if designated by tactician)