We caught up with first team fitness coach Tony Strudwick and asked him for his tips on improving general fitness…

What’s the best way for a footballer to improve fitness levels?
First and foremost, you need to identify how much time you can devote to working on fitness. We’re very lucky here at United because we get at least two to three hours per day, per player. Over the course of a week that can add up to anywhere between 12 to 20 hours' work.

For an amateur player it’s going to be slightly different, so you need to use your time very effectively. That’s the key message and why planning is so important. You can’t just go out there and decide to do certain drills there and then. There needs to be some kind of structure to your session – it’s about quality rather than quantity.

Assuming training time is limited, what’s the most effective exercise?
If you can only do two or three sessions a week they could be aerobic endurance sessions. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to do lots and lots of running; you can work on your endurance by playing small-sided games, five v five in blocks of five to 10 minutes. That will help you build up a really good aerobic base.

If you can manage to do two or three sessions like that in a week, that should be sufficient to not only build up your aerobic endurance but also maintain it. You can do the same amount of blocks on a treadmill if you want. It’s important to build up an aerobic base before you progress onto any repeated sprint work. In addition to the endurance work, short, sharp fitness drills help keep your body stimulated, which fire up your speed mechanisms and also keep your mind bright.