Manchester United 2021/22

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ManU 4 (Mctomminay / Martial / Rashford / og) - Melbourne Victory 1 (Pre-season Friendly - Australia)

With 2 goals by Mctominay and Martial in the first half, the second half had a much better display by the 2nd-stringers in terms of compactness, good pressing and possession, with both Ethan Laird and Tahith Chong clearly one of those better players showing promise.

The third goal was the best in terms of a one-two link-up play from deep inside our half when Bailly (whose inch-perfect pass found Rashford among the wall of defenders and beating the offside trap to slot the ball past their goalie), making amends for his sloppiness when he gave the ball away twice from his own half. Again, VDB was like a headless chicken and he has not taken these chances to show improvement, unlike Martial and Rashford with their confidence-boosting goals.

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ManU 3 (Martial / Rashford/ Sancho) - Crystal Palace 1 (Pre-season friendly - Victory Stadium, Melbourne)

With this third pre-season friendly, the transformation under Ten Hag has been apparent, in terms of fitness levels, pressing and compactness. Another goal by Martial in as many matches in the 18th minute would surely boost his confidence levels, and transform him into the player he once was.

The confidence in the second half saw us playing a high-line and Rashford scored in the 48th minute after a nice cutback from VDB, followed by Sancho's goal in the 59th minute. The vast number of subs later altered the flow and this allowed Palace to score a consolation goal. Next up will be Villa on Saturday.

 

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ManU 0 - Atletico Madrid 1 - Pre-season Friendly #5 - Oslo, Norway)

Save for the 2 chances from Martial and a fracas between Mctominay and their goalie, there was promise in the high-pressing and compactness but no result in the first-half for both teams. With Eriksen and VDB introduced in the second-half for Martial and Mctominay and later Pellistri, it was Atletico's Joao Felix who scored in the 86th minute, with Fred being shown the red card at full time  and the first loss in this Pre-season friendly. With the king CR7 returning to play in the last one tomorrow against Rayo Vallecano at Old Trafford, these 6 games will allow Ten Hag to finalise his first eleven on the EPL opening against Brighton.

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 ManU 1 (Amad) - Rayo Vallecano 1 (Pre-season #6 - Home)

With the exception of VDB and Eriksen who played in the match against Atletico yesterday, the rest were fresh players, including Garnacho, James Garner and CR7. Playing a high line, it was Garnacho who made incisive passes and penetrative runs with good support from Eriksen and Tahith Chong, whose finishing was poor, given the two chances he had in the scoreless first half.

It was Amad who replaced CR7 at the beginning of the second half and it justified ETH's decision as he scored in the 47th minute with Rayo pulling one back ten minutes later. All in, the youngsters have made impressive performances and those like Garnacho, Ethan Laird, Tahith, Amad etc have shown promise and will provide ETH much better choices compared to those like VDB, Telles, McFred etc for his starting 11. GGMU!