Manchester United kick off their 23/24 season by playing Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League at Old Trafford on Monday night.
Despite defying the expectations of some last season and winning the club’s first trophy since 2017, there are still many things to improve on before the team is challenging for the major honours.
So here are four things we’ll want to see on Monday if Erik Ten Hag’s team want to do that.
1. Better Playing Out From The Back
United demonstrated a willingness to want to play it short out of the back to beat the opposition press last season but faced some difficulties and sometimes had to compromise the style of play for results.
The arrival of Andre Onana should make this easier since the goalkeeper is far more comfortable at passing with his feet compared to the previous David De Gea.
With this, we should see the manager’s philosophy come through on the pitch more and far fewer silly mistakes when trying to play out.
2. A More Complete Attacking, Possession-Based Approach
Ten Hag has spoken before about how he wants his teams to play and mentioned that it is no different for The Red Devils.
However, last season United often looked to approach games with more caution than the manager may have expected they’d have to.
With some new signings hopefully making a difference in the approach (Both Onana and Mason Mount should start, and both seem to have been signed specifically for the style of play), we should see an improvement and less compromise from the United game plan.
3. Spirit And No Capitulations
United far too often cracked under the pressure last season and fans will want to see more consistency this campaign.
Perhaps more consistency in the style and more good players to choose from will eliminate this, but there seemed to be a clear issue in the mentality sometimes, either way.
The 7-0 defeat to Liverpool. 4-0 to Brentford and some other embarrassing performances like those against Brighton are just a few examples. They need to be cut out if the club are to be improving their points and trophy tally this year.
A 90-minute performance has been rare for the club in recent years.
4. Good Performances And A Result To Match
Ultimately, supporters will want to see three points on the board, especially at the start of the season.
The performances by key players such as Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford could be key as they have been so many times in the past, but everyone needs to turn up if they want to beat a Premier League team.
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