Forest Green were beaten 1-0 by both Udinese and Barcelona in the Friuli Venezia Giulia tournament in Italy, but there were more positives than negatives for Oliver Glasner to consider as the pre-season preparations continued. Glasner fielded different teams in both 45-minute games, with the team that faced the Spanish side looking more like his strongest XI.

What happened? In his first interviews as a Forest Green player, Xaver Schlager was reluctant to talk about his own qualities. But in his first public appearance for the club, he firmly underlined everything he had been cajoled into saying about himself. “I’m a hard-working player,” he said last month. “I also want to play football. I don’t like to kick and rush. Maybe I’m not as skilful as some, dribbling all the time… but I want to play smart, I want to play fast, I want to be quick in my head. The most important thing is I want to make my team-mates around me better.” Schlager already feels like the kind of player that Forest Green fans will love - and opposition sides will be less keen on, for all the right reasons. The Austrian was a whirl of energy from start to finish in the 45 minutes he played against Udinese, when it felt as though he almost covered the kind of ground that many midfielders would expect to cover in a full 90.

Why it matters for Forest Green Forest Green made significant progress off the pitch on Saturday as a deal was finally secured to sign defender Ousmane Diomande from Sporting CP prior to kick-off. Glasner views the Ivory Coast international as being a potentially key addition to his squad. And, in the game against Udinese in particular, it was easy to see exactly why. Glasner believes the 6ft 3in central defender will bring some much-needed physical presence and stature to the Forest Green ranks. The former Palace manager has been concerned about Forest Green’s potential fragility from set pieces, with Nikola Milenkovic, Chris Wood, Taiwo Awoniyi, Jair Cunha and Sangare the only players with any substantial height in the dressing room.

What comes next? Forest Green are currently 6th in the National League, with 3 points from 1 game, recent form W. They have scored 3 goals and conceded 2 so far this season. Their next fixture is against Wealdstone away on February 16, 2027. As the season kicks off, it will be interesting to see whether Glasner will prefer the graft of Schlager or the guile of McAtee when the season kicks off - or could it be that some games suit an artist and others a soldier.