It’s a quick return to action for Manchester United. The dust barely seems to have settled on last season before they strap on boots, shin pads and a new strip to get back into matches.
United only returned to pre-season training last Monday. Seven days later they have their first friendly, taking on Norweigan outfit Rosenborg in Trondheim with an inexperienced squad.
It’s the first game since the FA Cup final win which effectively saved Erik ten Hag’s job. He will be joined by a new coaching team including ex-United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, and while there will be no new players in the squad tonight there are still plenty of things to look out for.
Planning for Fulham?
Plenty of the starters in Trondheim will not line up for the Premier League anthem against Fulham next month but some will. Regardless of who is available, Erik ten Hag uses friendlies as building blocks for the new season. Kobbie Mainoo started in United‘s first friendly against Leeds United in Oslo last year and was playing his way into the starting XI until that luckless injury against Real Madrid.
Only the squad that has travelled to Norway undermines the fixtures status as a ‘first team friendly’. Norwegians who have paid to watch United are entitled to demand their money back. Six – at the most – are household names in the 25-man squad.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Casemiro, Mason Mount and Marcus Rashford are the senior players available to start. Harry Amass and Toby Collyer are two academy products Ten Hag has taken a shine to and should get a look-in this week.
Realistically, only Mount and Rashford are vying for starting roles against Fulham.
Senior bows?
Amass and Collyer were on the bench 15 times between them last season but did not get on for the first team. That could change this week and they should have obtained their US visas for the tour.
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Tyrell Malacia is still missing in action and Luke Shaw’s Euros have just ended, so Amass is the logical left back. Collyer signed a new contract last week and he is only the third youngster whose signing ceremony Ten Hag was present for.
The other two were Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho.
Sink or swim for Mount
Sir Jim Ratcliffe urged Luke Shaw not to get injured again in his good luck message to the England national side last week and he must feel the same way about Mount, starter of one Premier League match in the past nine months.
With Mainoo and Bruno Fernandes’s returns delayed by their participation in the European Championship, Mount has to use pre-season to ensure he is a starter for the visit of Fulham. He underwhelmed in pre-season last year and has been usurped by Mainoo for club and country. It is sink or swim by the Norwegian Sea.
Another striker experiment?
One of the issues of United’s pre-season last year was they did not have a striker. Anthony Martial was conveniently injured during another transfer window, Rashford was unconvincing in his stints up top and Jadon Sancho was trialled there.
Sancho will not be in Norway and he should not be in a United squad again, really. For today, Rashford, Ethan Wheatley or Joe Hugill could rotate the strike.
Doing things by halves
The likelihood is the outfield starters will get 45 minutes before half-time as they build up their fitness. Hugill, Habeeb Ogunneye, Will Fish, Rhys Bennett, Louis Jackson, Sonny Aljofree, Finley McAllister, Maxi Oyedele and Ethans Williams and Wheatley are among the prodigies competing for a 45-minute audition.