What teams would you class as being "like a team we are going to face in the EFL"? Apart from playing vs another Championship team in a friendly?
We played a current top flight German team. They are better than most teams we will play this season.
Saints have a behind closed doors friendly on Sunday 9th August. So makes sense for the first choice XI to play the Colchester game on 8th August and the others to play in the friendly.
No. I didn't watch any training. It was also in pre season and not near any league game.
No contradiction. I saw the plans of a training week, not the training itself.
Sports Interactive talks to a huge number of professionals in the industry to reflect real life, I've worked for them for 19 years. I have also been to Staplewood and seen what Saints do and talked to Saints staff.
All the tactical work is done in those final 3 days before a game. That is standard practice in the sport and why those 72 hours of training are viewed as more important. In the time before those 72 hours it is recovery sessions for the previous games and general training drills.
Knowing how your opponent intends to play in different match situations like set pieces and the personnel they have availsble and altering your tactical and team selection to counter it affects games.