Graham Alexander pleased with Bradford’s start to pre-season

The latest West Yorkshire sport headlines, from Daniel Wales.

Transcript

00:00Bradford City manager Graeme Alexander has made clear that he has been pleased with the Bantams' start to pre-season

00:06following their match against FC United of Manchester.

00:09Very pleasing, good end to the training week.

00:12We spoke yesterday at the end of the training session, which was a tough session yesterday.

00:17Don't think of tomorrow as a game, so don't worry about the load we've put into you today.

00:20It's 45 minutes maximum tomorrow, so it's part of our training week.

00:24We just need to see the progression of our press and our out-of-possession stuff,

00:27which we've worked on extensively for the last two weeks.

00:31I was really pleased with the way the players approached the game,

00:35took on board what we've been doing in training.

00:38We haven't touched at all the in-possession stuff,

00:41so I think that will get better and quicker as we go into the next couple of weeks.

00:46But every player's finished off a really good working week in the right way.

00:49Their attitude and application was spot on.

00:52And that's it. You see it's a training session, but obviously it is a competitive game of football

00:54in front of the fans in a stadium. That won't make any difference to the players.

00:58It's a football match for them. It's about breeding winning, even though it is only pre-season still.

01:02Yeah, look, the will to win has to be there, so we have to do the right things.

01:05But what I didn't want us to do is go off how we want to play just to win a game of football.

01:10You know, not yet. That's in the season. We have to bed down on how we play.

01:14And Leeds United's new defender, Sebastian Borno, has said that he knows that playing in the Premier League

01:20will be tough for him and his new club, but that they are all relishing it.

01:25Yeah, I think it's a really big season. I think it's really important to stay in the Premier League.

01:29It's going to be a tough battle, but I like tough battles.

01:32And yeah, I think from there on, we hope to progress and then bring the club where it belongs.

01:38So let's talk about the way you play the game. How do you like to play it?

01:41I'm quite an aggressive defender, I would say. I'm strong. I like duels. I think it's pretty English.

01:50And I think as a centre-back, I'm dangerous in front of the goal.

01:54I like set pieces, offensive set pieces. So that's what I think my game is, I would say.

02:01And are you looking forward to meeting the rest of the group, getting to know the rest of the group?

02:05Yeah, it's a really nice group. So I'm really looking forward to meet

02:11all of the guys. So yeah, I can't wait to start actually.