Erik ten Hag has been experimenting with his new Manchester United squad in the Red Devils' first two pre-season fixtures.
United faced Liverpool and Melbourne Victory in Thailand and Australia respectively this week, with Ten Hag choosing to play two different XIs in each half. Kicking off with a rousing 4-0 win against their old foes in Bangkok, the Dutch tactician then led his side to a comfortmable 4-1 victory down under - all without Cristiano Ronaldo, who still wants out and remains at home for "family reasons."
While Ten Hag is aiming to improve his team with additions from the transfer market - such as targets Frenkie de Jong and Lisandro Martinez, and new signing Christian Eriksen - his priority in pre-season is to find out which players he'll be able to rely on come Sunday, August 7. That's when the Red Devils begin their Premier League campaign at home to Brighton & Hove Albion.
With that all-important game in mind, let's take a look at how United's two XIs fared.
First XI
While David de Gea didn't follow the trend of playing in 45-minute bursts, the Spaniard did manage 68 minutes in the clash with Liverpool before picking up a knock. On top of a few smart saves, De Gea showed signs that Ten Hag's coaching is already baring fruit, looking confident coming out of his penalty area and receiving possession.
Across the back line, Diogo Dalot, Victor Lindelof, Raphael Varane - who was replaced by Maguire in Melbourne due to injury - and Luke Shaw were up against a young Liverpool XI in the first half. While they didn't manage to breach the defence like Victory did, Ten Hag clearly saw room for improvement all-round.
"Of course it will take time, believe me I have seen a lot of mistakes but I will not say [what they were]," the former Ajax manager told MUTV. "But to be honest, Liverpool played with three teams and they were not at their strongest, so we are not overestimating them. We saw some really good things. What you see is we have a lot of creativity and speed in the front and we have potential."
Speaking of the front, Ten Hag deployed Scott McTominay and Fred at the base of his attack, a reliable duo heavily relied on by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick over the past three years. And they each bagged a goal across the two matches, as Fred firstly chipped in with a lovely dink over Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker, while Scott McTominay's deflected strike made it 1-1 in Melbourne after the Red Devils had gone behind at the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground.
With Bruno Fernandes struggling to offer his usual creative output at No.10, Jadon Sancho was the chief tormentor and his fast feet worked a few openings in both games. Against Liverpool, Sancho opened the scoring with a cool finish to open his account. Marcus Rashford, who also netted three days later, operated on the left-hand side - which Ten Hag believes is United's stronger flank.
"I was really happy to see that," the ex-Utrecht boss said of Sancho's performance. "I think we have a good left side but I think you see against Liverpool that we also have attacks on the right side and it was good to see it because you want to have balance. If you are only on one side it is quite predictable so we want that to develop over two sides but also in the middle and from everywhere."
But the star of the attack was undoubtedly Anthony Martial, who bagged in each game with typically cool finishes. The first was a lovely effort from a tight angle - one-on-one with the imposing Alisson - to make it 3-0 on Tuesday. The second goal was a reactionary finish, as the ball whizzed across the Melbourne box, handing the Red Devils a lead which they again didn't give up.
Ten Hag has backed Martial to make a success of himself this season, having endured a nightmare campaign last time out which saw him score just two goals all season and be loaned out to Sevilla. "I'm sure he can come back even better," the 52-year-old stated. "I think when he has the right focus and the right motivation and he works hard he will have production because he is a good player."
Second XI
With Heaton in-between the posts for the latter stages in Bangkok and full 90 minutes on Friday, the 36-year-old had little to do barring pick the ball out of his net once. His wealth of experience was helpful for the youthful rearguard, with Eric Bailly partnering makeshift centre-back Alex Telles. Bailly was instrumental to both of the fourth goals in each game but looked defensively suspect on numerous occasions, needing £85million man Darwin Nunez to sky a shot on Tuesday and spare his blushes.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka was given the Liverpool second half, while academy star Ethan Laird faced Victory. Each of them looked bright, but the focus was on the left-hand side with new signing Tyrell Malacia. The 22-year-old Dutchman looked lively and nearly got an assist for Rashford in Australia, having kept Mohamed Salah quiet previously.
It was the midfield pair who shone in both matches, as academy duo Charlie Savage and Zidane Iqbal were outstanding. Composed on the ball and decisive in possession, supporters were impressed with their assured perofmrnaues. With Savage constantly being compared to his dad, Robbie, the most talked-about element was Iqbal's silky turn against Melbourne, sending fans on social media wild.
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Ahead of them, Donny van de Beek did his best to make an impact, but had little joy behind striker Amad - who assisted Facundo Pellistri's goal against Liverpool. Despite his goal, Pellistri was replaced by Tahith Chong for the Melbourne clash, showing why Birmingham City were so gutted when his loan spell at St Andrew's was cut short thanks to injury last season.
Ten Hag was pleased with both outings and now it's on to Crystal Palace next Tuesday, again at the MCG. Of course, we still have to wait a while longer for the real business to start, but the new gaffer couldn't have hoped for much more to get up and running.
