Manchester United’s pre-season tour begins on Tuesday 12 July as the Red Devils take on Liverpool in Bangkok. With six pre-season games before the Premier League starts at the beginning of August here is a look at five things to keep an eye on in those pre-season friendlies.
Full-back
As of writing the only new signing for Erik ten Hag is dutch left-back Tyrell Malacia. Formerly playing his first team football at Feyenoord, the young defender is someone that ten Hag knows rather well and knows his strengths. I am fairly confident that this will turn out to be a good addition to the squad. With the drop in levels at full-back that we saw last season there was no doubt that this was an area that needed reinforcement. The issue comes with how many full-backs we still have in the squad. Currently on pre-season we have Dalot, Shaw, Telles, Laird, Wan-Bissaka and now Malacia. It will be interesting to see how ten Hag handles this situation and who he seems to prefer. I think both of those starting full-back roles are well and truly up for grabs come the opening day of the season.
James Garner
One man who really has an opportunity to grasp a spot in the first team is James Garner. The issues with Manchester United’s midfield have been plain to see for many seasons now. However, last seasons those issues were made even more apparent. The lack of positional awareness from McTominay and the poor ball retention of Fred make Manchester United’s midfield very weak. Hence the links to Frenkie De Jong; a strong ball playing midfielder who would be able to keep possession and progress the ball further up the pitch. However, this deal is yet to be completed and someone who could potentially fulfill a similar role is James Garner. After a highly successful loan spell at Nottingham Forest, helping them to promotion, there is definitely a player in there. I don’t think he is ready to be starting every game. But it will be interesting to see how he is utilised in pre-season and what bearing that might have on the rest of the season.
Forward Line
This one is quite a topical issue. Obviously Cristiano Ronaldo has not gone on the pre-season tour with the rest of the squad. This along with the growing rumours of a move, indicate that he will not be playing at Old Trafford come the start of the season. With the departure of Cavani and the Mason Greenwood situation this leaves us very light up top. The only real option is Anthony Martial. After a very disappointing loan spell with Sevilla this doesn’t leave fans with much hope.
With that in mind it will be very interesting to see who leads the line in these pre-season fixtures. Will we see Martial return to his former glory. Hopefully Erik ten Hag can get the best out of him. Or will we see some of the youngsters feature more heavily, such as Garnacho. We will have to wait and see how ten Hag handles this one.
Formation
Following on from the lack of options at striker, we could see some tinkering with the formation. Erik ten Hag prefers the 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 formation. However, some have suggested that to accommodate the abundance of attacking midfielders and wide players at the club we could see a tweak in this formation. Deploying Bruno Fernandes as a false 9 could be something that works quite well. We know that ten Hag likes to have fluidity and flexibility in attack. So if Bruno lined up as a false 9 with someone like Donny van de Beek behind him in midfield and then runners out wide this could compensate for the lack of a world class number 9. If Bruno can return to the levels that we saw two seasons ago and find killer balls for the likes of Sancho and Rashford, or even Martial out wide, we could be looking at a dangerous forward line. Again we will have to wait and see how the boss handles this problem.
Playing Style
Something that is a big part of Erik ten Hag’s footballing style is playing out from the back. That aspect of United’s game has been weak for some time now and again this was majorly highlighted towards the end of last season. Hopefully as the pre-season progresses we can see some improvement on this front. As ten Hag has more time with these players and instills his footballing philosophy into the group I would hope that we can become a team that is confident on the ball; something that appeared to be lacking last season. Players like David de Gea and Harry Maguire will particularly be under a watchful eye in this regard. Can these players step up their game and become the types of players that will thrive under ten Hag’s system or will the manager need to find different solutions. All of this remains to be seen but there are definitely things to look out for and be excited about with this upcoming pre-season.