Sky Blues U21s boss John Dempster says his young players are in a good place as they prepare to start the defence of their Professional Development League title.
City were crowned PDL champions last term and will be looking to repeat the trick in 2022/23.
Their pre-season schedule has seen them face both non-league senior sides and Premier League youngster, as well as a trip to Chelsea to lock horns with a team that boasted players with Champions League experience, such as Ross Barkley and Michy Batshuayi.
"The players have had a good pre-season with lots of avriation in their games programme. They've performed well, both in training an during those games," said Dempster.
"The first competitive game will be very different to pre-season, but the preparation has been really good.
"We had two good performances against Nuneaton and Stratford. We then had a game against Leicester City (U21) at their new training ground and more recently we've played Everton (U21) and Chelsea (U21), who fielded a really strong team.
"The players have had lots of variation and they've played against different styles of play. They've been very good in possession, which has been promising, but, as ever, there's still lots of work to be done."
Summer signings Tom Costello and Dermi Lusala have both joined the club since their last competitive fixtures and will start the season as part of the Under-21s group.
"The new lads have settled in well, coming into a new group, and some of them have had to move away from home for the first time," Dempster continued.
"The boys who have been here for a number of years have welcomed their new teammates with open arms and so far they've bonded well.
"There will be ups and downs, that a guarantee. Hopefully we become stronger as a group throughout that and let's hope that they continue to grow and players and individuals."
He added: "We want to continue to push these players and get them as close to the first team as possible.
"It's going to be a massive challenge because the standard is very high, with out first team group playing at a very high level.
"Our task is to bridge that gap and get out players to be as close to that as possible."