Yeah, you'll need some form of pre-season training to encourage your squad back to fitness in time for the new season. This is acheived by creating more intensive training schedules, and combining this intensive training with friendly matches allows your players to gain fitness before the start of the season. There are a few things to consider:
<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>Training intensity - how far do you want to push your players?
<LI>Risk of injuries - the higher the intensity, the greater the risk of pre-season injuries.
<LI>Number / type of schedules - do you want to keep things simple, or split off various players into different training schedules?
<LI>Squad playing status - are your players under full-time, part-time or a mixture of contracts?
<LI>Pre-season duration - what is the optimum amount of time players should undertake pre-season for?
<LI>Number / type of friendly matches - what is the optimum number of friendly matches your squad should play? Are they suited to several friendlies over a short space of time? (EG a tour / league / cup).
<LI>Coaches and of pre-season - which coaches (if not all) should take control of pre-season duties? EG Fitness coaches, first team coaches, assistant manager(s), youth team coaches and so on</UL>
Once you've considered these points, you then actually need to build the training schedule. Here are the training schedules I use, and notice how they're split between
Goalkeepers (GK) and
Outfield (OF) players:
GK Pre-Season (Full-Time)
OF Pre-Season (Full-Time)
GK Pre-Season (Part-Time)
OF Pre-Season (Part-Time)
GK Pre-Season (Youth)
OF Pre-Season (Youth)
Hope this gives you a few ideas :thup: