Plymouth Argyle training camp in Spain is priceless says assistant head coach

Plymouth Argyle's pre-season Spanish training camp 'is priceless' for preparing for the 2024/25 Championship campaign, according to assistant head coach Pete Shuttleworth.

Wayne Rooney, his staff and the Pilgrims' players arrived at the Marbella Football Centre on Sunday night and they have already have done a lot of work, both physically and tactically. They also have a game against South African side Orlando Pirates coming up on Friday night.

Shuttleworth, who was brought to Argyle by Rooney after his appointment as head coach earlier this summer, has been impressed with the fitness levels among the squad, which has meant they can focus their attention on the training pitches and implementing the style of play they want them to deliver in the Championship this coming season.

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He told Plymouth Live: "The facilities we have got here are really good. The hotel has been fit for purpose and everything.

"It's the first time we (Shuttleworth and Rooney) have been here, I think Argyle have been here before so there is a familiarity with it with some staff, which helps. It has been excellent so far, we have been looked after, and the training pitches are always good to get out on.

"The heat obviously plays a part out here but we also want to get as much work, as much fitness into the lads as we can. I have to say, they have come back in really good shape.

"They have done a programme that Gareth (Law, Argyle's head of performance) set up over the off season before we were in situ and the lads have all come back looking really good, really strong.

"It has allowed us then to get onto the more intricate parts of what we want to do and add the fitness elements onto it because they have been really professional over the summer. That's important."

He continued: "We look to manage the difference between single sessions and double sessions. We give the lads recovery days because you can't just go at it for seven, eight days out here double sessions every day because you break them, so we have to do that with the sport science and performance team.

"But, also, with the demand that we want the lads to work hard, we want them to be sore, we want them to feel they have been away on pre-season and have worked, and the first three days I think we have had a really good balance with what we wanted to do."

"We give them a little bit of individual time as well. We think that's important because they need to bond as a group away from the staff.

"The changing room needs to grow strong from within. I think a few went and played a round of golf. We might give them a little bit more time over the weekend. I'm sure the English lads will be watching England tonight (against Netherlands in the Euro 2024 semi-finals).

"It's work, but also have your free time as long as you are representing the club in the right manner and you are being professional in everything you do. We like that balance as well."

Argyle began pre-season last Wednesday with a series of testing in the gym at Plymouth Marjon University and then had a couple of days on the grass at the Harper's Park training ground before leaving for Spain's Costa del Sol on Sunday.

Shuttleworth said: "It's priceless to have this exposure. Six days in, we have actually got quite a lot into the lads in terms of tactical information and technical work on top of the physical.

"I think this time last Wednesday the lads were in for testing and were touching a football for the first time, so we are really early into that and there is a good period to go between now and the Sheffield Wednesday game (Argyle's opening Championship fixture at Hillsborough on Sunday, August 11).

"This time is priceless. When you go in halfway through a season and you are trying to get your ideas in quickly but the lads are ingrained in what they have been doing before, it's quite difficult.

"This exposure, this coming in on day one with an ideology about how we are going to play, has been really good so far. Wayne and the rest of the staff have been able to implement that, and just drip feed things in.

"It's not going to be perfect straight away because players need time to adapt to it. It's a real privilege to get this pre-season to try to hit the ground running for Sheffield Wednesday."

The training camp in Marbella has also allowed Argyle's four summer signings - Nathanael Ogbeta, Darko Gyabi, Mohamed Tijani and, the most recent recruit, Ibrahim Cissoko - to start settling into the squad.

Cissoko, a Dutch under-21 international winger, only completed his season-long loan move from French Ligue 1 club Toulouse on Tuesday. Shuttleworth said: "I have to say that I think it's a really strong changing room. There is some good leaders in there, some good characters in there and they have been very welcoming with the new lads, which is all you can ask for.

"I think in terms of the four players, we know the success this football club has had over the last four or five years and it's brilliant, and you embrace that.

"There is some success in that changing room, and obviously last year there was the relative success of staying in the Championship on the last day, which was a huge achievement.

"I think what we needed to do this year is probably just add a little bit to help the group. The bulk of that group has been together for a while and we just needed to add to it a little bit, to help the lads who are already there, to add a little bit more maybe at the top end of the pitch - a few attacking players have come in - so that's the real benefit.

"When you bring them in that way they also get time to bond as well. Yesterday, for example, Ibrahim Cissoko came in and was doing some fitness testing in the afternoon.

"He was just slightly away from the group and he was doing his testing so he could join the group today, and I think three or four senior players stayed out and supported him doing his runs, and were cheering him on.

"I thought that was excellent. I thought that was a real idea of the culture that's already in place here, and what we will embrace and try to build on. It was a good thing to see."

Cissoko, 21, was signed by Toulouse from Dutch top flight club NEC Nijmegen last summer for a reported €3 million fee but went on to have only a limited amount of game time in Ligue 1.

Shuttleworth said: "He trained with us today and looked very comfortable. He has got that little bit of confidence about him, how he walks down the corridor. We have got to build that belief up, from what he probably didn't have last season.

"That's our job, and I think we have got a really exciting footballer there. The manager obviously being an attacker when he used to play can really impart his knowledge on these attacking players. We look forward to seeing him in action, we really do."