Paul Tait, Everton Under-18s manager, has revealed hard work, fight and leadership are just some of the traits he is hoping to see in his young squad this season.
While many of last year’s team have stepped up to join David Unsworth’s under-23s and the, Tait is now working with players starting their first year scholarships and will be showing them what is expected.
Helping them to adapt to the demands of professional football, Tait, a former Blues trainee himself, admitted it can come as a surprise to some of the youngsters.
Speaking to Everton’s official website, he said: “Every day now is about working on the mentality, the behaviours and the values of the players.
“That’s the hard work, dedication and the application we’re looking for.
“As a coach, I just try to help them in any way I can to adapt, because going fully professional can be a bit of a shock for the boys sometimes.
“They will do massive amounts of physical work, more than they’ve ever been used to. You want to see real resilience and fight because it’s going to be tough [in pre-season].
“You’re looking for the boys who dig deep and show grit and determination. That’s then infectious. If you’ve got leaders in the group who display those qualities, then you hope the others will follow.
“That’s the psychological side and then there are the physical demands, because they’re training every day.
“Those factors [mentality and fitness work] will be the focus in the first six weeks of pre-season, then it’s about embedding tactically what we want to do – although we’ll obviously be drip-feeding that tactical information throughout our practice sessions and friendly matches.”
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