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Manchester United will tackle Fulham within the Premier League curtain-raiser this night in entrance of an expectant Outdated Trafford crowd.
The Purple Devils have taken on the Cottagers 91 instances of their historical past with United popping out on prime on 56 events.
They’ve drawn 20 and solely misplaced 15 instances to the West Londoners.
United might be aiming for a greater season than final. Regardless of ending strongly by successful the FA Cup, they are going to hope to significantly enhance on final 12 months’s eighth-place league end. Their rivals can even goal to complete increased than final season’s thirteenth place.
Listed below are three storylines for followers to look out for through the match.
Can Amad Diallo cement his first alternative standing?
One of many huge storylines of the concluding weeks of final season was the emergence of Amad Diallo, who finally acquired one thing of an opportunity in Erik ten Hag’s first workforce after months of harm issues and being neglected by the Dutch boss.
The skillful Ivorian scored a vital last-gasp winner towards Liverpool to ship United to Wembley in March and impressed within the final house recreation of the season towards Newcastle United offering a superb end and intelligent help on the evening.
The 22-year-old has adopted this up with a beautiful pre-season the place he scored towards each Glasgow Rangers and Actual Betis, earlier than carrying the torch for United’s assault within the first hour towards Manchester Metropolis within the Neighborhood Defend.
Supervisor Erik ten Hag has already thrown down the gauntlet by claiming this “may very well be his 12 months” and it will likely be attention-grabbing to see if he maintains his place within the first workforce tonight.
There isn’t any doubt that he’s a fan favorite and he has spoken already about how we’d like to spend his profession at Outdated Trafford. This season might show pivotal in making this a actuality.
Which debutant will get a begin?
Probably the most thrilling issues concerning the begin of any new season is witnessing new gamers pull on the well-known pink shirt for the very first time.
United followers already had a glimpse of Leny Yoro, earlier than he cruelly picked up a long-term harm versus Arsenal in pre-season.
The Purple Devils’ new sporting construction have been onerous at work off the pitch and have additionally introduced in Joshua Zirkzee, Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui.
Ten Hag claimed that the Dutch striker Zirkzee was match to play within the Neighborhood Defend however he didn’t get off the bench, so it’s unclear whether or not he might be risked tonight as he has not had a lot of a pre-season on account of his involvement in Euro 2024.
De Ligt and Mazraoui have additionally had little preparation this summer time and solely joined the membership formally earlier within the week. In consequence, they’ve solely had a few classes with the remainder of the workforce.
Despite this, Ten Hag confirmed in his pre-match press convention that each can be found for motion tonight.
The Peoples Individual predicts that the Moroccan fullback may get an opportunity to begin because of the harm disaster at left again, as each Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia are unavailable.
Each Zirkzee and De Ligt could should make do with an look off the bench however it will likely be very a lot in Ten Hag’s curiosity to present them each minutes to allow them to rise up to hurry rapidly as United’s season kicks off in earnest.
Can United set the tone with possession-based soccer?
Considered one of Ten Hag’s facet’s greatest issues final 12 months was the openness of the midfield and this was evident from day one towards Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The brand new homeowners have urged that they goal to implement a extra dominating and possession-based type of soccer on the membership, which has been on present to an extent this pre-season.
The Neighborhood Defend towards Manchester Metropolis began off in acquainted vogue as Pep Guardiola’s workforce dominated the ball however United grew into the sport and held their very own from an attacking and possession perspective as they achieved a good 44% and positively had the higher of the probabilities.
United followers in fact will need the three factors tonight however they can even be eager to see the workforce look proficient with the ball and goal to manage the sport by way of possession and probabilities.
Most supporters are conscious this may require endurance and won’t be an in a single day repair. Nonetheless, similar to the sport final weekend, followers will hope to see the promising shoots of possession-based soccer flourish as soon as extra.
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