City boss Steven Pressley says the club's trip to Holland has bore the right fruit
Coventry City boss Steven Pressley has ben delighted with the progress his side has made during their pre-season tour of Holland and said his players have become a much more 'cohesive unit'.
The Sky Blues face one more friendly fixture against Dutch top flight side Heracles Almelo this afternoon before flying home in advance of four friendly fixtures in the space of five days next week.
City beat German fifth tier side TSV Wachtendonk 6-0 on Tuesday night before suffering a narrow 1-0 defeat to Willem II on Thursday.
Pressley said though that the tie with Heracles will be a step up again and a challenge he was looking forward to.
"I'm expecting a very difficult test because it's another step up from Willem II and they'll certainly test us defensively and offensively," he said.
"We did more analysis work on the way we played on Thursday and there was aspects of that game that I was really satisfied with. The way we kept our shape, retained the ball and created a number of chances was encouraging but there's other aspects we must improve on and we'll continue to do that.
"That's why we do the analysis and focus on step-by-step improvements during pre-season and most importantly I've been delighted with the attitude of the group in general.
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"With the type of attitude they're showing and us adding layers to that I think we've got a really good chance to be successful.
"Willem II have a significantly higher budget than ourselves but we held our own and actually dominated them in the first half. There was lots of pleasing aspects but I want to continue to see improvements."
Pressley added that his next step would be to blend the experiences from the tour of Holland with a more British appproach to defending, a mix he said would stand the clubin good stead for the new season.
"These are the types of games we've needed. They're different types of games to the ones you will get in League One. They ask different questions in terms of your fitness so we'll take that with us and then we will get more accustomised to the English style of football with our friendlies next week.
"I've always been a fan of Dutch football. They're a very intense nation about their football and are always the front runners when it comes to the development of the game and continued improvement of the methods of the game.
"With our league back home you have to do more of the bread and butter defending but if you can combine that with the way the Dutch press and pressure and test your system then we will do very well."