John Barry Nusum, the Robin Hood coach, intends to hit the ground running when the Premier Division champions face FA Cup winners PHC Zebras in the Charity Cup at Goose Gosling Field on Sunday.

Very little separated the two teams last season and the former Bermuda captain predicts the clash on the weekend will flow in the same vein.

“Last season, on paper, I thought PHC were the better team throughout the season,” Nusum said. “A lot of the games they drew or lost were games they should have won. [But] Robin Hood did the business on the field to win the league.

“It’s going to be fun. I am looking forward to it.”

Nusum took over the reins after Kyle Lightbourne stepped down after guiding Hood to their first league title and since then has wasted no time implementing his preferred systems, which is set to include more emphasis on the pressing game.

“We will be playing with different systems based on what teams we’re playing and the basis will probably be a 4-2-3-1,” he said. “But some games we will play with three at the back.

“We have a few different changes and brought in a couple of defenders as well, which has allowed me to be able to play with the systems a little bit.

“If we can defend from the front and win the ball higher up, that makes it an easier route to goal as opposed to defending low. I want to press the ball; and that’s one thing we have been [working on].

“Defensively, we want to press the ball in higher positions and be able to win the ball so that we can attack quickly so even if we win the ball deeper we want to see how fast we can get up the pitch.”

Hood have reinforced their back line with the arrivals of defenders Jaylon Bather, Danté Leverock and William White during the transfer period.

“We have Jaylon coming back from overseas and Danté,” Nusum said.

“We have Darius Cox already, so when I look at a formation of three, those are my three rocks right there.

“I wanted to solidify the defence so we can allow our offensive players to attack. We have a lot of different ways we can play.”

Another new key arrival is forward Mazhye Burchall, who has joined from the Zebras.

Burchall scored a memorable first goal at the senior level only four minutes after coming on as a substitute in PHC’s 2-0 Dudley Eve Trophy win over Hood at Wellington Oval during the 2015-16 campaign.

“Mazhye was a key piece we needed,” Nusum said. “He’s going to be one who changes the way we play.”

Nusum, who played professionally indoors for Philadelphia Kixx and recently led the Bermuda Under-15 boys’ team at the Concacaf Championship in Florida, is determined to claim the silverware and send a warning to the rest of the league.

“We are definitely going to go out there to try and win,” Nusum said.

Sunday’s game kicks off at 5pm.