Day 32

We've reached the eve of the season. Today was the last day of the preseason. Tomorrow we face AFC Telford in the league opener, a match that we're "comfortable favourites" to win (odds are 4-6 that we beat them).

As such, I had some preparations to make.

Unfortunately, we're still not ready in terms of "tactic familiarity levels." But the boys are at least getting close now.

For set pieces, I put Olembé on corners—with Nicolau, Shuker, and Russell as other corner-takers—and Nicolau and Shuker on free kicks. I didn't specify any throw-in takers, since we have no long throw specialists. I refrained from detailing individual instructions for set piece tactics, since I haven't finalised the first-choice lineup.

John Nutter is our penalty taker. If he's not on the pitch, the pecking order is Laurent (who will be injured until the new year), Power, Christophe, Shuker, Olembé, then whoever wants it.

Most of the players have very little creativity, so I changed the "Creative Freedom" to "More Disciplined." I also increased the width and tempo we play at, reduced the amount of time wasting to attempt in a match, and told them to play counter attack—so we can exploit the pace of our attacking players. I expect that I'll fine-tune all of these settings as the season progresses.

As for lineup, I'm pretty set on Nutter, Marques, Gowling, and Bore across the backline. Olembé will take the left wing, while Christophe and Power sit in the centre of midfield. Barnes-Homer will be joined up front by Sam Smith. And Shuker will play on the right flank if he's fit—his condition is rated at 84%, and he's tired. If Shuker isn't up to starting, I'll have to put in either the youngster Robert Taylor or right back Peter Bore (with another player taking his place).

I intend to have Adamson (goalkeeper), Sinclair (centre back), Taylor (right winger or attacking midfielder), Atkinson (central midfielder), and Rodney (striker) on the bench, but we'll see how everyone shapes up tomorrow.