Paul Heckingbottom's quest to ensure Sheffield United avoid a repeat of last year's pre-season difficulties begins today in Portugal. The Blades were forced into a period of isolation on their return from Marbella last time.

They also played just one meaningful friendly, away at Doncaster Rovers, and did not appear ready when the season started under new manager Slavisa Jokanovic.

This week's tour will be the third successive summer under a different boss and Heckingbottom is keen to see his players hit the ground running when they kick-off their Championship campaign at Watford next month.

READ MORE: Performance guru Tom Little's winning formula and what Sheffield United players can expect

Sheffield United arrived yesterday and today is the first training session at their Lisbon HQ. They will train every day and then have a match against Casa Pia, newly promoted to the Portuguese top flight, on Friday.

A step up for starters on the Gibraltar side they played last summer in a training ground exercise. Another training session on the Saturday will then bring the curtain down before returning to the UK.

United's players will also get to see what life is like under their new head of performance, Tom Little, who has joined from Preston. He has previously worked with Heckingbottom at Barnsley and Jack Lester at Nottingham Forest and is highly regarded in his field.

He told Yorkshire Live the sessions 'are going to be heavy' as he looks to get his new team into shape. Emphasis is not just on fitness, though. Team spirit and bonding is also a crucial part of the tour and it won't be all work and no play. Focus will be given to that element, too.

Sheffield United in Portugal

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"They are going to heavy, that's for certain," he said. "The vast majority are going to be outdoors. We are training every single day that we are out there and the majority will be double sessions as well.

"We have our game on the Friday and we are even going to train the day after the game. The players are only going to play 45 minutes each and then we will do a safe form of conditioning the day after that because we don't fly back until late before a day off, so we wanted to take the opportunity to work before that day off.

"It's going to be tough. It's going to be about work ethic, about bonding. It's all planned out really carefully.

"There will be fitness and tactical sessions and some days will be lighter because you can't just go hard, hard, hard every day."

The focus for any pre-season is fitness and it's perhaps the toughest week of any summer for a player. But Heckingbottom is also going to use it as an opportunity to address the disappointment of the play-off semi-final defeat to Nottingham Forest last month.

This week is the first time all the players will be together with those on international duty coming back later than the rest. Heckingbottom says he will draw a line under last season and remind his players of what 2022-23 must look like.

"When we get to Portugal, that's when we address last season and speak about next season, speak about us and what we did well, where we can improve. One thing I thought we were really clear on last season and it probably came across to you guys and to the fans was what we want to be, what we want to look like and how we want to behave.

"That will be the same again once we get to Portugal. We will really understand what we want to look like on the pitch and off the pitch."

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