A positive start to pre-season training for Alexander and MK Dons

The first week of pre-season training has been completed at MK Dons, and Graham Alexander is liking what he has seen.

After being sat behind a desk for the last four weeks, waiting for the squad to return, Alexander has been getting to know the ropes at Stadium MK, but has been eager to get back onto the training pitch with his new team.

Several of the players left the Woughton on the Green training pitch at the lunchtime interval saying it was one of the toughest pre-season opening weeks they had been through, something which brought a wry grin out of the new boss.

“It's been going really well from my perspective,” he said. “We've worked the players really hard, we want to test their physical capabilities and improve their fitness. They've had a good break but an off-season programme to follow, and we're ready to give them some tactical ideas too. I've asked them to commit to everything we're asking of them, and that commitment has been good so far.

“We have to be ready for 50 games, minimum, that's the target we've set for the players. In British football, you have to be fit because of how we play the game here. It's the same at every level.”

Initially, the training programme has been largely physical, with plenty of running involved. However, there have also been ball drills and short matches played out, with Alexander keen to mix both physical and tactical early on.

He continued: “The first few days are purely physical - we want to see how the players come back from their summer break. We weren't here to set their programmes in the off-season, so we want to see how they are. Now we're seeing how they're improving each day.

“We've got six weeks to get as much as we can into them tactically. After a couple of days, we started to do some basic stuff, but if it's little and often, it goes in for longer periods rather than one big brain dump!

“We'll increase it as time goes on, but we don't want to jump to step three or four if they don't understand step two. We have to put those blocks in place first before moving on.

“All through pre-season, and into the season itself, we'll have physical elements of training through it. Without the base of physical fitness and injury resistance, you won't be able to play games to win them anyway.

“Each week will look different, but there will always be a physical and tactical element to them.”