Manchester United start the 2024/25 Premier League season against Fulham tonight at Old Trafford.
It’s not just an opportunity for the team to show improvements from last season, but three of the four new signings could make their debut to give the fans a first glimpse of them playing a competitive fixture for the Reds.
Erik ten Hag confirmed that United’s new signings Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui will be in the squad to face Fulham in the Premier League curtain-raiser.
The pair joined in separate deals from Bayern Munich on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Joshua Zirkzee is set to start on the bench when the Cottagers visit Manchester.
The 23-year-old striker joined United last month from Bologna in a £36.5 million deal but he did not start team training until his team-mates returned from the pre-season tour last Wednesday. That means Ten Hag hasn’t had a lot of time with all of his players as a group ahead of the new campaign, which means some members of the squad will be at different stages of fitness and match sharpness.
Zirkzee was an unused substitute in the Community Shield draw with Man City last week, even though he was the only senior striker available in the squad. United started the game with club captain Bruno Fernandes playing in a false nine role.
Rasmus Hojlund misses the start of the season due to injury.
“I think he is close, so that is one of the complications,” Ten Hag said about Zirkzee, as per the Manchester Evening News. “We don’t have a pre-season with him so we need games to bring him.
“If you see his background, in the last months he had an injury with Bologna. In the end, he made the selection for the Netherlands, so that helped him out of our first few weeks of pre-season.
“So no games – that is his problem in this moment. But now it is his third week in training, you see him stepping up, his fitness levels are improving and he needs more minutes and we can’t do it in a friendly, it has to go into the league.
“I am so happy I have those (attacking) choices, that fit for all units, all positions, we need a number of players going into the season. We think about 60 games so it will be a survival of the fittest, we need squad depth.
“You have to make choices and you need rotation. No player can play all the games but also internal competition and you also need some weapons to use tactically.
“I am very happy we have those numbers and we have quality players so we can make those choices. We also have quality players with different abilities and that is good to have them in the squad.”
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