Ammies Boss Pleased With Competition For Starting Places

He was speaking to Salford’s official video channel after the Ammies’ 2-1 win against Altrincham and Alexander said he was pleased with pre-season but it wouldn’t count for anything if his team don’t continue their hard work.

“I’ve been really pleased with the way the players have approached everything we’ve put in place,” he said. We’ve looked for improvements physically and tactically as we’ve gone along, and the players are getting the ideas that we’re putting in place.

“The work ethic has certainly been there from the players day in day out in training and in the games, but we know pre-season is there for a purpose - to prepare for the season and that’s what we’ve done – we’ve never took our eye off where we really need to kick in, and that’s next Saturday.

“We’ll have a good weeks training now, unbroken with no midweek games and we’ll get ready for Saturday. Results-wise, that comes in next Saturday,” he added.

Alexander has certainly made his mark on the playing side of things since his arrival at the Peninsula Stadium and the ex-Preston man said he’s happy with the competition for places in his starting eleven.

He said: “The players have competed with each other day in day out trying to force their hand to get into the squad and that’s what we aspire to – I think what it will do is keep everyone’s standards high.

“The competition [for places] doesn’t finish until the end of the season so whichever team we name towards the end of this week to prepare for Leyton Orient, the players have got to realise that the competition is still there for the rest of the season and they owe it to themselves and to their team mates to continue putting pressure on each other.”

The final week before the season opener is crucial for managers as they begin to fine-tune tactics and teams ready for competitive football.

Alexander is no different and says that despite having a good idea of his starting eleven, there is still time for some players to force their way into his plans.

“After five weeks of training and six or seven games we have to have an idea [of our first team] or we don’t know what we’re doing so we have a general idea,” he said.

“But we’ll leave that decision making until the last possible moment to give the players the opportunity to get into the team. Only 11 players can play so we have to make decisions as we work towards the end of the week.”