With Manchester United set to embark on their 2022/23 pre-season under Erik ten Hag, we took a look at how last summer’s pre-season shaped up for the club.
This pre-season had to be held entirely domestically due to COVID laws at the time meaning travel was complicated and expensive.
July 18th – Derby County (A)
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Manchester United’s first game back after the 2021 Europa League final was never going to be a grand spectacle, however two goals from young wingers Tahith Chong and Facundo Pellistri secured a 2-1 victory and therefore first win in pre-season for Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s men.
At the start of the match, Derby definitely seemed the livelier of the two sides, coming out of their blocks fast, displaying real threat from the flanks.
Chong had a chance in the early stages of the game; however he couldn’t convert. Not knocked of confidence though, he soon scored in the 16th minute by stealing the ball off Derby midfielder Max Bird and slotting the ball home second time lucky after his initial chip shot was saved.
Despite going 1-0 down, Derby County kept pushing, and this push accumulated in a brilliant chance for Tom Lawrence set up by former youth academy player Ravel Morrison, however the Welshman could not direct the ball on target and his header flew wide.
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Solskjær made nine changes for the second half, keeping only centre-back pairing Axel Tuanzebe and Teden Mengi on the field, and yet again Derby looked to start the half quickly, and not long after the restart striker Colin Kazim-Richards missed a great chance to pull the Rams back level.
What came next was certainly the most impressive part of the game, as Pellistri, after being fed through by Shola Shoretire, rounded the keeper with a brilliant body feint and put United two goals up. Derby pulled one back via Kazim-Richards, however it was not enough as the match ended in a 2-1 victory for The Red Devils.
In the grand scheme of things, this game felt no more important than a kick about. Most United players on the field got 45 minutes of professional football back in their legs, and a couple of goals created by the young lads will never do any harm.
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July 24th – Queens Park Rangers (A)
After an initial win at Pride Park, United next travelled to the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium to play QPR. This match was not a pretty one. United started off very well, with the revitalised Jesse Lingard, who scored in the opening two minutes.
The assist coming from Facundo Pellistri (a very nice first-time lay off) showed a definite increase in match sharpness from the Uruguayan, but this was definitely not the case for the rest of the side.
Just four minutes later, Charlie Austin was left completely free in the six-yard box to head home a cross for the equaliser. The match then fazed in to a pretty even match up with Mason Greenwood being United’s most potent threat, however neither side could break the deadlock going into half time.
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In the second half, United had another few chances, two coming at the feet off substitute Anthony Elanga, however one was collected by the keeper and the other was (wrongly) flagged as offside after he had the ball in the back of the net. Almost immediately after, QPR took the lead.
Lyndon Dykes scored, and minutes later Moses Odubajo scored a wonder goal from 20-ish yards.
Elanga had a chance to pull one back, however failure to do so led to a break for QPR who hammered home their fourth of the match. Elanga did pull one back towards the end (assisted by Shoretire), however it was a little too late to have any real impact and United lost 4-2.
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July 28th – Brentford (H)
After two matches against Championship sides, United turned to face Premier League opposition in the shape of newly promoted Brentford. After winning one and losing one, it felt only right for Manchester United to draw their third game of pre-season.
With 30,000 fans back at Old Trafford as witnesses, the ever-impressive Elanga scored a lovely scissor kick volley to opening the scoring for United, only for Shandon Baptiste to equalise in spectacular for Brentford, making the sides equal at half time.
United had more sustained and dominant attacks against Brentford, which indicated a marked improvement from the opening two pre-season matches. In the second half, which saw the return of Diogo Dalot into Manchester red, we saw what was the best goal of pre-season, a simply stunning volley from Andreas Pereira.
After the ball was cleared into the air by Brentford following a shot from Lingard, Andreas whacked an unbelievable volley from 25-yards first time straight into the top corner, pinging off the underside of the crossbar on its way win. Sweet, sweet stuff.
Solskjær continued to make changes, bringing the likes of Daniel James and Donny van de Beek on for half an hour, but that didn’t stop Brentford from grabbing an equaliser, as Dalot was caught out by Bryan Mbeumo, who subsequently scored Brentford’s second of the game.
August 7th – Everton (H)
With a Coronavirus scare in the United camp, The Reds were forced to cancel their penultimate pre-season fixture against Preston North End. This meant that many United players would only get a single match to warm up for the Premier League opener, however they managed to end the pre-season in style, nonetheless.
A four-goal match made it an exciting affair for the 55,000 allowed in Old Trafford, and it was even better considering all of them went in the Everton goal. Mason Greenwood, Harry Maguire, Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot were all on the scoresheet in a dominant performance from the hosts.
It was a return to action for many United men, including Fernandes and Maguire who both found themselves putting the ball in the back of the net. Luke Shaw, Anthony Martial, Victor Lindelöf, Paul Pogba and Scott McTominay were the other names returning to action.
While Greenwood’s opening goal might’ve been due to defensive errors on Everton’s part, you could not say the same for either of Maguire or Fernandes’ efforts, both of which found the top corners – Maguire’s being a header from a corner and Bruno’s being a spectacular free-kick from 25-yards out.
Dalot also topped off an impressive cameo with a headed goal which looped over the top of Asmir Begović in the last minute of the match.
With last summer feeling a lifetime ago, Erik ten Hag will hope that his pre-season is much more successful, without any illness scares of cancelations.
Topics: Manchester United, Erik Ten Hag, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Facundo Pellistri, Football
Dylan Penketh