Leeds United head coach Garry Monk is expecting a stern test on Saturday, with Serie A side Atalanta B.C. providing the opposition. The United boss believes his side will reap the benefits of going up against a top-flight European team in their final pre-season fixture before the 2016-17 Championship campaign gets underway.
Atalanta, who finished a respectable 13th in Serie A last season, are the most reputable opposition of a pre-season schedule that has seen United win three of their four pre-season outings to date.
"They’ll be very tactically astute, they have a good energy and a high class of players playing in a top league in Europe,” Monk told leedsunited.com.
"We’re expecting a really tough test. "It’s good for our young players to go through these experiences — that’s why I wanted this game. "We could have settled for something of less class or something closer to our level, but our aspirations are to play in the Premier League. "Playing against a top level side will give our players a really good experience.”
Monk is eager to see his side finish their pre-season campaign on a positive note, but the head coach also underlined the importance of seeing United take another step closer to being fully prepared for next weekend’s season opener away at Queens Park Rangers.
"I’ll select a team to hopefully try and win the game,” Monk said. "We’ve won most of our pre-season games apart from the last one and we want to keep a winning run going. "We want to put the importance on winning the game, but really it’s about making sure that every time we go on the pitch, we’re getting better, getting that little bit sharper.
"We want things that we’re working on come out a little bit more, which they have been and I’ve been very pleased, and that we get closer to the 90-minute mark of a complete performance. "That’s always the aim — every manager will tell you that. We’re looking for another step forward on Saturday.
"We would like to put on a good performance. In terms of class, we’re playing the biggest team of our pre-season and that’s the test you want. "It’s going to be the ultimate test for us going into the new season because of the level of opposition that we’re playing, but we want to take another step forward.
"I think it’s a case of us first showing what we can do, which I’m confident the players will, and also for the crowd to understand us and make sure that togetherness of everyone pushing in the right direction starts on Saturday.
"As soon as we’re here, this has to be a fortress for us. Everyone has to support the team. "The players on the pitch will be trying to deliver and if they make a mistake or they create a good goal, we have to support them the whole way through. We have to support each other no matter what.”
United's game against Atalanta at Elland Road on Saturday will kick off at 3:00 PM.