Manchester United’s pre-season began with a dismal defeat to Rosenborg in Norway and Erik ten Hag telling his players their performance was “not the standard for top football” while telling them off for not being fit. It ended with a crushing 3-0 loss at the hands of arch-rivals Liverpool in South Carolina.
In between there were wins over Rangers and Real Betis as well as a 2-1 defeat to Arsenal, which came with the twin blows of Rasmus Hojlund and Leny Yoro suffering long-term injuries. Many of the team’s most important players did not feature at all after going deep at the European Championship and Copa America, and they now have less than a week to fine tune themselves for the Community Shield against Manchester City.
United beat City the last time they met in the FA Cup final, when they staged a huge shock which ultimately led to Ten Hag keeping his job. United, though, now feel very much like the underdogs heading into Saturday, especially after City thrashed Chelsea 4-2 in their final pre-season game.
At best, the pre-season feels like a waste of time, albeit one United could not control due to so many big hitters missing it. At worst, it feels like a it has drained already tight resources and dampened the mood ahead of the new campaign.