Manchester United’s pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia came to an end on July 23 as they flew home immediately after facing fellow Premier League side Aston Villa at the Optus Stadium in Perth.
Arriving home on the Sunday after the match, newly appointed Erik ten Hag granted the first team a day off, with the Reds returning on Tuesday, including wantaway striker Cristiano Ronaldo.
In the past week, United have played three friendlies – one coming behind closed doors against National League Wrexham at Carrington, as well as facing Spanish sides Atletico Madrid in Oslo on Saturday, and Rayo Vallecano at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Pre-season for Ten Hag has seen his side win three of their six games, drawing twice and losing once as well as scoring 14 goals in that period, and the Dutchman will have learnt a hell of a lot about his current United squad.
Strength in depth needed
The lack of depth in United's squad has been questioned heavily over the summer, but in fact, it is not the numbers that is the issue for Ten Hag, but the quality in numbers.
Within the full-back positions, United have seven players, all of whom are arguably not exactly good enough to start.
Tyrell Malacia has been a good addition to the squad, being integrated well in pre-season and has showed his qualities on-the-ball, but in the right-back slot, neither Diogo Dalot, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Ethan Laird have staked a claim for the position, though it seems like Dalot will be Ten Hag’s first choice for the position.
The seemingly never-ending saga of Frenkie de Jong continues and shows from an exterior point of view of how desperate Ten Hag is for the right profile in the position.
With Paul Pogba and Nemanja Matic having left the club on a free earlier in the summer, the deeper lying midfield role needs filling, and question marks remain of whether returning loanee James Garner can fill that void.
On signing a player to play in that position, Ten Hag said: “We are looking for a player who can play in the holding midfield position. There are not many in that position capable of the level we demand. When we can’t find him, we have to deal with the players in our current squad now and we will develop one in that position.”
Fred was a shining light of Ralf Rangnick’s tenure, being used further up the pitch in a more ‘advanced eight’ role, and Scott McTominay’s skillset is extremely limited, on-and-off the ball.
In attack, Ten Hag has four senior forwards, all whilst Cristiano Ronaldo’s future is still up in the air, leaving just Anthony Martial, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford.
Speaking in Australia, Ten Hag is fully aware of the need for more additions to his squad.
He said: “I am really happy with our performances of our midfield department and offensive department at this moment. But I also know about this season – we talk about it in Bangkok and Melbourne – it’s a lot of games, the World Cup, so we need more options where you have a good team, and it’s not only about the team, you need a good squad to get the right results at the end of the season.
“We have to strengthen the squad even more and we are looking around but we also need the right players.”
The lack of options could pave the way for youngsters Amad Diallo, Facundo Pellistri and Alejandro Garnacho however, the scenario isn’t an ideal one for Ten Hag.
Innovative methods
There seems to be a sense of excitement from Manchester United fans with the way their side have played in pre-season.
Erik ten Hag has used innovative methods in training and matches on tour, switching between a 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 depending on the personnel.
Full-backs Luke Shaw, Malacia and Dalot have all been used invertedly, with one of the three, depending on who’s starting, often acting as a third central midfielder. This is something we have seen previously used by Pep Guardiola with Kyle Walker, Joao Cancelo, Oleksandr Zinchenko and even Fabian Delph.
In Dalot’s case, this has helped the Portuguese international massively.
Last season in the Premier League, the 23-year-old had a crossing accuracy of 26%. In pre-season games against Crystal Palace and Aston Villa, Dalot completed 11 successful final third passes, creating two big chances in the first of the two fixtures, showing how he is much more comfortable in the middle third of the pitch.
Ten Hag’s demands for Dalot to invert has also seen Jadon Sancho come into the new season in a rich vein of form.
In pre-season, the former Borussia Dortmund man has found the net three times, but the winger’s performances have been all the more impressive than those in the last campaign.
Sancho is seen as more of a ‘give and go’ winger who enjoys exchanging passes with those closest to him before making his way into the area.
Last season under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick, Sancho was often left isolated 1v1 in scenario’s he doesn’t favour as much.
In defence, with new signing Lisandro Martinez missing a large portion of pre-season, Ten Hag used Alex Telles as a left centre-back and a holding midfielder too.
Ironically, these are two positions Martinez has played in previously in his time at Ajax under Ten Hag, but with the Argentinian unavailable at the time, Ten Hag innovatively used Telles in both positions, which could have potentially been an area of experimentation.
Martial’s un-droppable form
Anthony Martial returned to pre-season with a point to prove. In the time out in Australia and Thailand, the Frenchman scored three times, bettering his goals tally for the entirety of last campaign where he scored just twice for Manchester United and Sevilla on a short-loan spell.
However, it has been his attitude on the pitch that has been more impressive than anything, with Martial often being described as someone who has looked disinterested in the past. In the game against Palace in Melbourne, Martial won possession twice in the opposition’s half.
On tour, Ten Hag said: “We want to press, we want to press all day and play proactive football,” and it seems as though Martial is completely buying in two his new manager’s methods.
Of course, there is still work to be done from United’s number nine, but seemingly, Martial is Ten Hag’s first choice striker ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo, and this is a title Martial must work hard to maintain over the course of the season.