Manchester United’s 2021 pre-season is set to start in in less than two weeks, with the first fixture against Wayne Rooney’s Derby County to take place on 18 July.
There are concerns over the availability of many starters at the club, with Solskjaer’s most used players all on vacation for large parts of July. Victor Lindelof, who crashed out of the European Championship last week, is not expected to return until the end of this month and the same goes for Harry Maguire, who is still playing.
And with Eric Bailly taking part in the Tokyo Olympics, the first pre-season game could open the door for Axel Tuanzebe and Phil Jones to start together at the heart of Manchester United’s defence.
That’s according to the Manchester Evening News, who argue that Solskjaer’s lack of options in that position for the first weeks of preparations could give the two English defenders a chance to impress.
Phil Jones was out for the majority of last season with a troublesome knee injury whilst Axel Tuanzebe was often the fourth choice, despite impressing towards the end of the campaign.
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How Jones is still at the club has to be one of the clubs best kept secrets. I don’t think Hargreaves was out half as long as him and was moved on