DOUGIE Freedman has stepped up his influence on the training ground by bringing his players in for double sessions in the build-up to Saturday’s clash with Barnsley.

Now flanked by assistant Lennie Lawrence and first team coach Curtis Fleming, the new Wanderers boss has increased the workload at Euxton in an effort to continue his unbeaten start at the helm.

Freedman has kept up momentum against three of the Championship’s promotion favourites, Cardiff, Leicester and Blackpool, but now wants to make it eight points from 12 against a Tykes team that has won just once in their last nine games.

The Whites boss says the absence of a midweek game should help him hammer home his message.

“I’ve looked at it over the next couple of months and there are only a couple of midweek games, so that’s what I really need as a new manager – full weeks with the players,” he said.

“It enables me to do a bit more work on tactics and on the physical side, so it is a good thing to have.”

Benik Afobe is due back in the camp today after netting a penalty on his debut for England Under-21s in their victory over Northern Ireland on Tuesday night, while Adam Bogdan, away with Hungary, and Keith Andrews, with Ireland, should report for duty tomorrow morning.

The majority of the squad – including regular internationals Sam Ricketts and Chung-Yong Lee – have been available, which has allowed Freedman to work more closely with his players than he has managed in the last fortnight since his arrival from Crystal Palace.

And Ricketts believes his methods on the training pitch, which have knitted in seamlessly with those put in place by Jimmy Phillips and the interim management team that initially took over after Owen Coyle’s departure, are already coaxing improvement out of the players.

“Good progression is being made, with and without the ball,” said the versatile defender “There are new ideas and the way he wants to play has really caught the lads’ imagination. You can see the difference in the team already in the week or so since he has been in.”

Ricketts, back in the reckoning on the right of the defence, added that he was happy to fill in where Freedman needed him after featuring across the back four so far this season.

“You want to be in that team,” he said. “You train all week to be in there on a Saturday and I don’t mind – I’ll play anywhere.

“It can be a bit easier at right-back because I’m naturally right-footed but it’s just a case of getting back into the routine and figuring out certain angles with the ball, but it’s nice; I enjoy it.”