• Three new signings Joshua Zirkzee, Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui have made their Premier League debuts for Man United.
• Serksi played the role of “hero”, scoring the winning goal for the Red Devils, taking home three points.
The new player makes a beautiful debut
Manchester United ‘s new signings Noussair Mazraoui, Matthijs de Ligt and Joshua Zirkzee
have all played their first games for their new club.
Mazraoui made his first Premier League start, playing 81 minutes.
Although the former Bayern Munich full-back has only trained with United for a short time and is still new to the club, he has blended in well with his team-mates and his stats after the game showed he made two clearances, three interceptions, two tackles and was dribbled past zero.
De Ligt started as a substitute, replacing Mazraoui in the 81st minute. While Cerksi also started as a substitute. He didn’t have much of an impact on the team in the beginning. But the script had him playing the role of the “hero”, scoring the winner for the team in the 87th minute.
However, he still needs time to adjust to his teammates. But that is already excellent for a player who has only just moved in and trained for a short time.
The reason why Sancho is unnamed
It’s quite a surprise that Jadon Sancho isn’t in the squad for this match. As he was involved in the team during pre-season and the Community Shield.
Amidst the doubts of fans and many English journalists, the Red Devils boss explained after the game the reason for Sancho’s absence as follows.
”I can only name 20 players. Jadon had an ear infection this week. He’s not 100%.”
”He can play, but I have to make decisions. Sometimes it can be frustrating for players, but every player gets their chance.”
Fabrizio Romano reports that his future with regards to a summer move is “still open”.
‘Gase’ is still okay
The 32-year-old Brazilian midfielder was one of the Red Devils’ standout performers in the match.
Throughout the game, he was involved in several of the team’s offensive plays, rushed forward to score from a free kick by Bruno Fernandes but headed over the bar, had a chance to score from a long shot, and had a volley outside the penalty area, but all of his chances to score were inaccurate.
He passed the ball through to Bruno who had a great chance to score. But the Portuguese midfielder’s shot was saved by Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno. Throughout the game, “Case” created three chances for his teammates to score.
Defensively, he helped the team on several occasions, including clearances (4), blocks (1), interceptions (1) and tackles (4).
Casemiro had previously been linked with a move away from the ยูฟ่าเบท club this summer, but Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag confirmed last week that he had “no indications that Case is not going to stay”.
Is he out of shape yet?
From what we saw in the first game of the season, he is fit but he needs to be used in the right games because he cannot play every game and United need to find a new midfielder to help ease the burden.
4-2-4 / 4-4-2 / 4-2-3-1 Version without a striker again.
In fact, Ten Hag has been using this style of play since last season, most notably in the FA Cup final against Man City in May.
The Dutchman then experimented with a pure strikerless formation in pre-season, against Real Betis, Liverpool, then against Man City in the Community Shield and most recently in the Premier League season opener against Fulham.
That is, Bruno Fernandes and Mason Mount play as false strikers (which can be rotated), and the formation can be adjusted to 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1 or 4-2-4 during the game.
However, this plan may be suitable for some matches and may not be used in every match. But it is understandable that Ten Hag uses this style of play.
1. New striker Joshua Zirkzee has just moved here and is still new to the team. It will take some time for him to become a regular player. Furthermore, he did not have a pre-season with the team before this.
2. Another forward, Rasmus Hojlund, is injured and will be out for 3 weeks.
3. And another forward, Marcus Rashford, is more comfortable playing as a left wing forward.
4. Another reason for using this plan is that if you want to pack the midfield tightly like in the last two matches against Man City, you can use it as well. It worked. Pack the defense tightly and use a quick counterattack (it should be more suitable for games against big teams).
5. He said before the Fulham game that the team was “not ready”, which is understandable considering it was a short pre-season, new players had just arrived and there was no pre-season with the team (only Leni Yoro) and players had already been to the Euros and Copa America 2024.
“I feel it makes them stronger but whether it’s a long-term solution – who knows?” football pundit Gary Neville told Sky Sports.