Manchester United’s new manager knows what to expect from EPL opponents, but an A-League team is different, writes Tom Smithies.
Coaches will tell you that the modern game is all about finding space, but even the smartest of players might have struggled to find room to manoeuvre in the theatrette beneath AAMI Park in Melbourne.
When Manchester United comes to town, everybody wants a piece of it. This is the goldfish bowl into which United’s new boss, Erik ten Hag, has stepped, and even a pre-season game on the other side of the world against Melbourne Victory becomes a box-office event.
The numbers tell a story: 11 TV and video cameras in what is not a huge space, nearly a dozen more photographic cameras, and the revelation that United’s touring party numbers some 150 players, staff and journalists.
At the heart of it all was one manager, admittedly speaking in his second language but also determined to offer no hostages to fortune. On team news, tactics and the future of Cristiano Ronaldo, the answers were succinct. Harry Maguire “might” play half a game, Ten Hag wants his players (shock!) to press more, Ronaldo’s situation is as-you-were. The most interesting words, in fact, came about the team they will play on Friday night.
There are no real secrets in world football, but there is a fixture occasionally which presents unique challenges. While an encounter with Melbourne Victory is first and foremost another chance for Ten Hag to measure the progress of his brief tenure so far in terms of his own team, it also seems to intrigue him that the opposition – its style, anyway – is relatively unfamiliar.
“It is pre-season but in football you play to win,” Ten Hag said. “This pre-season we have to develop our team and that is also a really big target for the game. Our squad is full, it is strong, the fans will be happy.
“(But) it’s a different opposition, and it’s always good to play against a different culture. It will be a different approach from (playing) Liverpool, Crystal Palace, Aston Villa. We know what to expect (from them) – from Victory it is different.
“They play at a good level, they were second in the league last year and they have a good squad. Also their coach is well known, he’s familiar with top sport and top football so this will be a good test.”
For Victory there are all sorts of motivations, beyond the simple challenge of taking on such a storied side; for some there are hopes of moving into the World Cup spotlight, or even attracting the attention of clubs overseas.
Both sides are in the early stages of their pre-season, what Victory captain Josh Brillante kept calling “prepping”, and the intrigue in Friday’s night clash will in part come from how quickly United can gel, and play the sort of football Ten Hag demands.
Hours off a plane from Bangkok his players were sprinting hard up and down the AAMI Park turf, with the coach himself almost in the middle of their football drills as he drove home his tactical messages.
“In every part of the team I want productivity; what’s most important is that players show initiative, on the ball and off the ball, offence and defence,” he noted.
“On a certain moment we play man marking. We want to press all day, play proactive football, and where we can we do that high. But where it’s not possible then we have to read it as a team and drop lower as a team, but still press all day.”
There’s some irony also in some of the players who may well get game time against Victory; the A-League has seen an influx of youngsters in the past two years, and Ten Hag sounds like he wants to promote the next-gen talents at United, where their promise demands it.
“Manchester United has huge potential and really good players,” the Dutchman said. “We have experienced players but also a lot of young guys who have a lot of potential. We have to get that out (of them) by working really hard. Manchester United is famous for it – Marcus Rashford is a symbol of the academy at Manchester United, and there are more talents coming after (him).”
Manchester United v Melbourne Victory
Friday, July 15
Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne
GET TICKETS
