Erik ten Hag says Manchester United may need time to reach full strength this season, pointing to the challenge of reintegrating players returning from international duty.
United go into the new campaign having completed their tour across the United States that saw them play friendlies against Arsenal, Real Betis and Liverpool. However, a number of players who featured for their countries at the European Championship and Copa America only returned last week. New signing Joshua Zirkzee, Bruno Fernandes, Kobbie Mainoo, Alejandro Garnacho, Lisandro Martinez, Diogo Dalot and Luke Shaw did not travel to the U.S with the rest of the group.
Ten Hag emphasised the importance of working on United’s “game model” and ways of playing but admitted that teams with fewer international players might have an advantage in the early weeks.
“I can see why you might see it that way, because we didn’t have time together,” he said. “We have to work on our game model and find the patterns. There was a break, they all played Euros, Copa America so they were in different teams, with different game models and different patterns, and now we have to bring this together and it’s complicated.
“I am not the only one who has to deal with this problem, but there are also teams with less international players, they can make a pre-season so they are probably ahead of us. We have to deal with this in the coming weeks without dropping points.”
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United are preparing for Saturday’s Community Shield clash against rivals Manchester City, in what will be their last game before their Premier League season starts.
This summer, United have made two signings in Zirkzee and Leny Yoro, with Yoro suffering a setback after being ruled out for three months with a foot injury.
Zirkzee, meanwhile, has yet to make an appearance for United, and although Ten Hag acknowledged the forward’s talent, he emphasised the need for patience as the 23-year-old adjusts to the squad.
“I think for every player coming into a new league and a new club, it takes time,” Ten Hag stated. “For every player coming into the Premier League, we all know the intensity is higher in comparison with other leagues where players are coming from.
“Zirkzee already has the experience (of playing in different leagues); he was a player in Belgium (Anderlecht on loan), a player in Germany (Bayern Munich), a player in Italy (Parma and Bologna), so he has already collected a lot of good experience and that will help him.
“Still, he will have to make a step (up) and we will have to help him. It’s not like early days when you have a proper pre-season with the team. He went to the Euros so had to train on his own here. He and we will need time to fit him in and that will take some weeks.”
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(Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
