Ryan Lowe has been impressed with the "application and attitude" of his players in training this week, as they fight for a place in the manager’s starting XI on Saturday afternoon.
Lowe, who was appointed at Preston North End on Tuesday, will take charge of his first game for the club against Barnsley at the weekend, and he has vowed to give everybody in the squad a clean slate.
At the time of the interview, Ryan had taken charge of just one training session at Euxton, but by 3pm on Saturday, he’ll have had a much better look at his players.
On his first session, which took place in stormy conditions, Ryan told iFollow: “They were great. People will say who stood out and whatever else, but they all stood out, they were all fantastic.
“The application and the attitude towards it in those conditions was fantastic, and that’s what you want.
“The conditions are not always going to be nice and sunny, are they? We’re going to go through a bit of a whirlwind in weather, but every single one of them, their attitude was spot on and I was really pleased with that.”
Ryan, along with his new first team coach Mike Marsh, are looking to bring an attacking brand of football to Deepdale, so these first few days have been about implementing ideas, which the boss said the players have "bought into".
As ever with a new manager, there will be a lot of intrigue over who makes the first team he fields, and Ryan is well aware of how difficult that could be.
He said: “Look it’s going to be tough isn’t it because all the lads, they’re all champing at the bit to show a new manager what they’re about, and I get that. I’ve been there myself as a player, but I can only pick 11.
“I’ll address that with the team, when we’ve done the team tomorrow they’ll all understand why and what. I’ll not shy away from anything, leaving anyone out, they’ll be told right the way through, but ultimately whatever team gets picked tomorrow we’ll all be together.
“I’m sure the squad will be together. We’ll stick with each other through thick and thin, that’s what I need, and every player I can guarantee will get an opportunity.
“Whether they take that is another thing but I’m hoping that every player I give a chance to will come out smelling of roses if you like and have taken that opportunity. That’s what I’ll be looking for.”
In North End’s way this weekend is a Barnsley side who sit 23rd in the league – eight points below the dotted line – but Ryan will be looking at setting his own side up more than focusing on the opposition.
He said: “There’ll be a lot of focus on us and about what we do. Listen we’ll still pay Barnsley respect, we’ll still do the analysis work that needs to be done on them.
“We’ve watched them and we know about them. I always say expect the unexpected because they’ve changed formation of late over the last few games and played a different formation against Swansea, so we’re aware that could be changed.
“Obviously the personnel we won’t know until on the day really at quarter to two when we get their team, but as long as we’ve got the fundamentals of what we feel they’ll do, we’ll respect them for that, and it’ll be all about what Preston North End do on Saturday afternoon.”
Watch Ryan's full interview on iFollow PNE now.