Manchester United kick off their pre-season tomorrow with a 5pm BST kick-off against Norwegian side Rosenborg in Trondheim.
There will be no need for floodlights in the northern Norwegian city, as with 21 hours of daylight in the summer, the sun will not set until way after the match, at 11.05pm.
United boss Erik ten Hag will want a better pre-season than 2023, which saw Kobbie Mainoo and Amad Diallo pick up nasty injuries that were to portend the season to come. It was also an early warning that Ten Hag’s new transitions-based system would be problematic, as it led to some awful performances such as a drab loss to lowly Wrexham.
With stars of Euro 24 and the Copa America still on holiday, the manager will have a number of changes to make from what would likely be the XI that kicks off the Premier League season against Fulham on August 16th.
A player who will definitely not feature is Jadon Sancho. The England man has finally patched up his differences with Ten Hag, but he only started training on Wednesday so will not quite be ready to take part.
Another question mark is whether Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans will be fit enough and available. Maguire’s injury cost him a place in the England Euros squad and Evans has only just signed a new deal, so it is unclear how much training either player has done.
Andre Onana should be available to play in goal, with Tom Heaton potentially as backup.
In defence, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Victor Lindelof, whose Sweden side did not qualify for the Euros, should play. If both Evans and Maguire are available, they will probably make up the rest of the back line but if not, we expect young Harry Amass to be given a chance to shine.
Similarly in midfield, Toby Collyer, who has just signed a new deal at United, could feature alongside Casemiro.
We then expect the rest of the team to be made up of first-teamers, with Amad, Antony, and Mason Mount supporting Marcus Rashford up front. It will be an early chance to see whether the arrival as coach of one of United’s greatest ever goalscorers, Ruud van Nistelrooy, can help Rashford find the scoring boots he was missing for much of last season.
Ethan Williams might also get some game time at center forward.
With all that in mind, here is our predicted XI for the game:
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