Sunderland’s pre-season preparations will ensure they fly out of the blocks when the Premier League season gets underway.
Jermain Defoe and his team-mates are currently laying the foundations for the upcoming campaign in Austria, with the first team currently working through an intense training programme which involves three challenging sessions per day.
Next week the club will take on Hartlepool United in their first pre-season outing before facing Rotherham United ahead of a trip to France, and speaking to safc.com the club’s reigning Player of the Year praised a swift start to training.
“We need to make sure we’re flying out of the block because if you make sure you’re fit the football and quality takes care of itself,” explained Defoe. “The conditioning we’re doing here with the sports science team is great because they know exactly what we need.
“Going away from ourselves, you look at Leicester and how they started against us on the opening day of last season – you just know they had a good pre-season in terms of conditioning – and it is one of the first things Sam [Allardyce] said to us when he came to the club.”
He added: “He wants to get us fit first and foremost because, as I said, when you’re fit as a team all the rest takes care of itself.”
Defoe, 33, also took time to praise the younger members of Sunderland’s pre-season squad, with the likes of George Honeyman, Rees Greenwood and the Robsons – Tom, Josh and Ethan – holding their on during their maiden first-team training camp.
“I remember going on trips with the first team when I was younger and they were special because you wanted to impress the senior players, coaches and the manager.
“It is a challenge for them because you want to improve every day and learn from the players you’re around, and you know it is a new season and at some point you want to try and break into the fold.”
