Pre-season is a liar. Every year, Manchester United fans fall into the same trap. We see a young kid score a worldie in Oslo or San Diego and suddenly he’s the next George Best. Then the Premier League starts, the intensity triples, and that same kid is on loan at a Championship club by October.
The Man Utd pre season isn't actually about winning games. Erik ten Hag has said it himself during various pressers over the last few years—it's about "load." It’s about not having your hamstrings snap in the 70th minute against Liverpool in August. But as fans, we can't help ourselves. We look at the scorelines. We look at the highlights. We overanalyze every single 45-minute cameo as if it’s a career-defining performance.
Honestly, the summer tour is a weird beast. It’s part tactical laboratory, part commercial circus, and part fitness bootcamp. If you're looking at the scoreboards to predict how United will do in the league, you're doing it wrong.
The tour isn't a trophy hunt
The biggest misconception about the Man Utd pre season schedule is that the results matter. They don't. In 2014, United went to the States and beat Real Madrid, Liverpool, and Roma. Louis van Gaal looked like a genius. Fans were convinced the title was coming back to Old Trafford. Then the season started with a home loss to Swansea City.
The reality? Managers use these games to see who can handle his system under fatigue. Ten Hag often plays two different XIs in each half. You might see Marcus Rashford playing with a bunch of academy kids who won’t even be in the first-team squad come September. That's why the rhythm often looks clunky. It's intentional.
You’ve got players coming back from different international breaks at different times. Some are at "Stage 1" fitness, others are at "Stage 4." When you mix those together on a pitch in 90-degree heat in South Carolina, the football is going to be ugly. It’s supposed to be. If United are winning every pre-season game 4-0, it might actually mean the opposition isn't pressing them hard enough to test their build-up play.
Fitness over fireworks
Look at the GPS data—well, the data the club actually lets us see via MUTV or leaked training clips. Players are often doing triple sessions before they even step on the pitch for a friendly. Their legs are heavy. They aren't playing for the win; they’re playing to survive the session.
A lot of the tactical work happens behind closed doors at Carrington before they even board the plane. The games are just a way to put those theories into a semi-competitive environment. If a center-back makes a mistake in a Man Utd pre season match, the coaching staff is usually more interested in why he was out of position rather than the fact that a goal was conceded. Was he following the new high-line instruction? Was he covering for a midfielder who stayed too high? These are the nuances that casual viewers miss while they're tweeting "#TenHagOut" after a loss to a mid-table Norwegian side.
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Why the youth players always look better
Have you noticed how the 18-year-olds always seem to be the ones sprinting the most? It’s because for them, this is the Champions League final. For a senior pro like Bruno Fernandes, a friendly in Perth is a chore he has to get through to be ready for the real stuff.
This creates a skewed perception of the squad. We saw it with Andreas Pereira for years. He was the "Pre-season Pirlo." He would dominate these summer tours because he had the technical ability and the hunger to prove a point. But when the "real" games started and the space on the pitch disappeared, he struggled to replicate that form.
The breakout stars of the Man Utd pre season
- Kobbie Mainoo: His rise wasn't a fluke, but the tour in the US gave him the platform. Even when he got injured against Real Madrid, the composure he showed in the minutes prior convinced the staff he was ready.
- Zidane Iqbal: Remember that turn against Liverpool in Bangkok? Fans went wild. He’s a great talent, but it shows the gap between a flashy pre-season moment and becoming a regular starter at Old Trafford.
- Alejandro Garnacho: His integration was slower. It wasn't just about the goals; it was about his discipline off the pitch during the tour.
If you want to spot the next big thing, don't look at who scores the tap-in. Look at who is demanding the ball under pressure. Look at who is winning their duels. That’s what the scouts are watching.
The commercial tax and the travel fatigue
Let's talk about the elephant in the room: the travel.
Manchester United is a global brand. That’s a fancy way of saying the club needs to make money. A Man Utd pre season tour involves thousands of air miles. One day they are in Los Angeles, the next they are in North Carolina.
This isn't ideal for peak physical conditioning. It's exhausting.
The players spend hours in "activation" sessions in hotel ballrooms because they can't get to a pitch. They have to do commercial appearances for sponsors like Adidas or TeamViewer. When people complain that the team looks sluggish in the second half of a tour, they forget that these guys have been living out of suitcases and dealing with jet lag for three weeks.
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Experts like Dr. Richard Hawkins, who spent years as the head of human performance at United, have often highlighted the delicate balance between commercial needs and athletic preparation. The club tries to mitigate this with specialized sleep kits and personalized nutrition, but you can't outrun the physics of a 12-hour flight.
The "B Team" games
Often, United will schedule "behind-closed-doors" friendlies at Carrington. These are usually much more informative than the big stadium games. No cameras, no fans, just 90 minutes of pure tactical drilling against a local side like Blackburn or Burnley.
If you hear reports that United lost 2-1 in a secret friendly, don't panic. Usually, those games are used to give minutes to players returning from injury or to test a very specific, experimental formation. It’s basically an 11-v-11 training drill with a referee.
Sorting the signal from the noise
So, how do you actually analyze the Man Utd pre season without losing your mind? You look for patterns, not results.
Is the team pressing as a unit? In the 2023 tour, you could see a clear shift in how Andre Onana was used to build from the back. It didn't always work—he got lobbed from the halfway line in one game—but the intent was there. That was a signal. A missed sitter by a striker who just flew in from Tokyo? That's noise.
Common traps fans fall into
- Overrating clean sheets: Defensive pairings change every 30 minutes. Cohesion is impossible.
- Focusing on "Wonderkids": Most won't make the bench in August.
- Judging new signings too early: They are usually learning their teammates' names, let alone their triggers for a through ball.
- Reading into the captaincy: Who wears the armband when the starters are off doesn't mean anything. It’s usually just the most senior player left on the pitch.
It’s also worth noting the "Ole Gunnar Solskjaer effect." Under Ole, United often had incredible pre-seasons because his style relied more on individual brilliance and fast transitions, which thrive in the loose, unstructured environment of a friendly. Ten Hag’s system is more rigid and structural. It takes longer to "load" into the players' brains, which is why his pre-seasons can sometimes look a bit more "boring" or labored.
The tactical evolution
Every summer tour gives us a hint of what the manager wants to do differently. Last year, it was the "high press." The year before, it was building through the "pivot."
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During the Man Utd pre season, watch the full-backs. Are they tucking inside to become midfielders (inverted)? Are they hugging the touchline? This tells you more about the upcoming season than the score against Arsenal or Liverpool ever will.
Ten Hag is a stickler for details. If he sees a winger failing to track back in a friendly, that player is going to hear about it in the video analysis room for the next three days. The stakes are internal, not external.
Real-world impact of the summer
- Injury prevention: A successful tour is one where everyone comes home healthy.
- Tactical familiarity: Players knowing exactly where to stand on a goal kick.
- Squad trimming: The tour usually decides who gets sold or loaned out. If a player barely gets minutes in the US, his agent is probably already on the phone with other clubs.
The reality is that United is always under the microscope. Whether it's a game in front of 80,000 people in Melbourne or a training session in Carrington, the pressure is constant. But pre-season is the only time the team is allowed to fail. It’s the only time they can try something new and have it blow up in their faces without costing them three points.
Actionable insights for the next tour
If you want to be a smarter fan this summer, change how you watch the Man Utd pre season games.
First, stop looking at the ball. Watch the players who don't have it. Are they maintaining the shape? Are they communicating? Second, ignore the commentator's hype about a 17-year-old's footwork and look at his positioning when the team loses possession. That's what gets you a spot in a Ten Hag midfield.
Check the injury reports more closely than the goalscorers. A "minor knock" in July can turn into a three-month absence if not managed correctly. And finally, take every "Masterclass" headline with a massive grain of salt.
Success in August is built in July, but it’s built through sweat and boring tactical drills, not flashy 4-0 wins in front of a celebrity crowd in Vegas. Keep your expectations grounded, watch the structural changes, and remember that the real work begins when the points are actually on the line.
Keep an eye on the transition speed from defense to attack. If United can win the ball back within six seconds consistently during the tour, they’ll be a force in the league. If they’re still getting bypassed in midfield, the summer hasn't fixed the core issues, regardless of how many goals they put past a depleted A-League All-Stars team.