Pre-Season Tactics

I have two questions regarding pre-season:

1. When you start a game during pre-season with 4-6 weeks until the season starts, do you make a tactic straight away and use it for the preseason matches and change it when you sign new players, or do you play friendlies within a basic 442 formation solely to build up match fitness?

2. When you are playing a season when your team is playing qualifying for European competitions, particularly the early rounds do you reduce the number of preseason matches? For example lets say you had a qualifying match the 3rd July and then 10th July would you reduce the friendlies you had and then reduce them even further if you progressed and had more qualifying matches and maybe increased them if you bowed out early?

All replies welcome.

I build a tactic around the players that are there, then any signings I make tend to be players that would fit in the systems I've already designed. I only tweak them if they aren't working in the friendlies. The start of pre-season is usually the time to make 3 tactics - one to defend, one to control, and one to attack, then practice them through the friendlies.

I leave friendly arranging to my assman.

Hmm I tend to do friendlies myself.

Anyone else?

I go with the formations/tactics I intend to use that season. I don't buy players that don't fit in my current selection. I arrange the friendlies myself, always having at least one (moderately) challenging match and the last one is always against local amateurs.

Last season, I had only two weeks between the end of the EC 2020 (in which a whole lot of my players featured) and the beginning of the new season, so I played only two friendlies. It showed in the number of injuries during the August and September matches.

Anyone else play differently?

I would play a good few friendlies, but with at least 5 days rest before the first qualifier.

And I make my formation first, basing it on the players I already have, and the way I like to play, then sign the players I need.

I can't really think of any reason not to start using your tactics for the season during your pre-season. You want to get the team's familiarity with them up, not to mention see if the tactics 'work'.

Does anyone have any strong views on the calibre of opposition for your friendlies? I inherited a schedule of friendlies that I wasn't wild about (I did then remove and add one myself), and my Spurs team annihilated a League Two team (Burton) 9-0. It wasn't necessaarily the best challenge as a friendly but it didn't half do wonders for everyone's morale and supporte confidence. Is it a good idea to have a few cannon-fodder friendlies-?

Depending on when the players come back and how long there is to go until the start of the season, I do the following (although it changes a little from time to time depending on how long it is between they come back from their holidays to the first day of the season:

Friendly against amateur team, 45mins each. Penalties if it's a draw. No extra time.

4 days later: Friendly against non league or lower league team depending on what league I'm in, 45mins each. Penalties if it's a draw. No extra time.

4 days later: Friendly against non league or lower league team depending on what league I'm in, 60mins for the starters, 30mins for the subs. Penalties if it's a draw. No extra time.

4 days later: Friendly against slightly better than non league/lower league team, 60mins for the starters, 30mins for the subs. Penalties if it's a draw. No extra time.

4 days later: Friendly against a challenging team, maybe a PL team if I'm in the Championship or a Championship team if I'm in L1 or below, 75mins for starters, 15mins for subs. Penalties if it's a draw. No extra time.

4 days later: Friendly against a challenging team, maybe a PL team if I'm in the Championship or a Championship team if I'm in L1 or below, 75mins for starters, 15mins for subs. Penalties if it's a draw. No extra time.

4 days later: Friendly against amateur team, 90mins, no subs. Penalties if it's a draw. No extra time.

1 day later: Friendly against amateur team, 90mins, no subs. Penalties if it's a draw. No extra time.

Basically I pick my first choice team for the first friendly, and then swap everyone for the next game, then 1st team for the 3rd friendly, 2nd team for the 4th friendly, etc. By the time it gets to the first day of the season, the vast majority of my players fitness levels are at near enough 100% with basically the same for match fitness. I may occasionally throw in an extra friendly against an amateur team where everyone gets 45mins if there's enough time between the day they come back from holidays and the first day of the season just for that extra little bit of performance and match fitness. My final 2 friendlies against the amateurs on consecutive days always take place on the Friday and Saturday the week before the season starts, giving everyone basically a full week to recover from the 90mins in the final friendly before the season starts.