United’s American lessons

Monday, 01/08/2011

by Amit Mistry, Shoot's Manchester United blogger

For Manchester United, the pre-season tour has to be overseas in order to maintain and develop the brand, as well as grow the global support the club commands. This year it was in the USA and it ended on a high.

This was the exhibition match against Barcelona, which many had dubbed this game as the Champions League final replay. Sadly, this was not the case as many stars were rested on both sides, and so either team were not at full strength.

Nevertheless, United gained a morale-boosting 2-1 victory over the Catalan giants. This game (as well the rest of the tour) gave us an insight into how Manchester United will look in this coming season.

Nani, who opened the scoring, was causing mayhem for Eric Abidal on the right flank, and could be claiming this position as his own over his team-mate Antonio Valencia. If the Portugal winger keeps up this momentum, then he could dazzle the Premier League, as did his predecessor Cristiano Ronaldo.

United’s new boy, David De Gea, looked shaky and seems to be not as settled as United fans would have hope for. He is still learning the English language and his physique is not quite up to Premier League standards.

This may favour Anders Lindegaard as he has impressed in this tour with his assured performances, and could be given the nod ahead of the young Spaniard for the start of the new season. Despite this Ferguson will not dub this as a transfer failure and will keep faith in De Gea, as he believes he will develop into a great keeper.

Sir Alex will not want to repeat the mistake of dismissing a keeper because of his age, as he did with Petr Cech, and we all saw how he became to be one of best keepers in the world.  

Michael Owen scored the winner which showed, at the age of 31, he still has got what it takes to score at the top. It looks like Ferguson was right to keep him on for one more year as his experience will be vital for the ever-blossoming Javier Hernandez and Danny Welbeck.

It was also encouraging to see Tom Cleverley impress as he had set up Owen’s goal. Playing in the centre of midfield demonstrates that Sir Alex has another option for that position as he continues to contemplate who will be Paul Scholes’ successor.

Whilst there continues to be statements of denial in signing Wesley Sneijder, David Gill still reiterates that there is money to spend and does hint that there is the possibility of one more signing. It will have to be a spectacular signing because I believe Sir Alex is quite happy with his squad and his new signings, and will continue with the organic development approach of young players turning into gems.

With strength in depth, United should be able to cope and succeed in a long and strenuous season, and they will be battling it out on all fronts.

It's a shame Hernandez will not be available for the Community Shield, but Ferguson will be quite happy to restore Dimitar Berbatov to the starting line-up or even link up Michael Owen with Wayne Rooney instead.

Although the Shield is not technically a competitive game, it will be an eye-opener to see how the new-look United will perform against a Man City side who will truly be a title rival for this season.

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