Is Manchester United Ready To Win The EPL?

Manchester United’s marathon 64-game season didn’t finish until May 24 with victory in the Europa League final. The bulk of the squad headed off on holiday immediately afterwards, while 12 first-team players met up with their national teams.

United are due back at Carrington for medical tests on July 8 before flying to Los Angeles on July 9 for their US tour. They are set to have a week-long training camp in California before playing their first game against LA Galaxy on July 15.

Jose Mourinho’s team will play five games in 12 days in the US before friendlies against Valerenga in Norway and Sampdoria in Dublin, Ireland.

Those preseason games will be followed by a date with Champions League winners Real Madrid in the Super Cup in Macedonia on Aug. 8. The Premier League season is set to start four days later on Aug. 12.

Fixtures

July 15: Manchester United vs LA Galaxy (Los Angeles, California)
July 17: Manchester United vs Real Salt Lake (Sandy, Utah)
July 20: Manchester United vs Manchester City (Int. Champions Cup, Houston, Texas)
July 23: Manchester United vs Real Madrid (Int. Champions Cup, Santa Clara, California)
July 26: Manchester United vs Barcelona (Int. Champions Cup, Landover, Maryland)
July. 30: Manchester United vs Valerenga (Oslo, Norway)
Aug. 2: Manchester United vs Sampdoria (Dublin, Ireland)
Aug. 8: Manchester United vs Real Madrid (UEFA Super Cup, Skopje, Macedonia)

Total matches: Eight

Total miles travelled: 21,851 (estimated)

– Manchester to Los Angeles: 5,286 miles
– Los Angeles to Sandy, round trip: 1,354 miles
– Los Angeles to Houston, round trip: 3,096 miles
– Los Angeles to Santa Clara, round trip: 690 miles
– Los Angeles to Washington D.C.: 2,668 miles
– Washington D.C. to Manchester: 3,537 miles
– Manchester to Oslo, round-trip: 1,322 miles
– Manchester to Dublin, round-trip: 328 miles
– Manchester to Skopje round-trip: 3,570 miles

Uncertainties

United’s preseason plans have been put in place with the full support of Mourinho, unlike last summer when he inherited a tour designed by Louis van Gaal.

The only complication will be where they start the Premier League season.The fixtures will be released on June 14 and Mourinho will hope he’s given a home game instead of another away trip — preferably on Sunday rather than Saturday to give the players an extra day’s rest after the Super Cup.

Ins and outs

Mourinho is expected to make around four key signings this summer with a centre-forward to replace the released Zlatan Ibrahimovic the most important of those. He’s also pursuing a centre-back and a holding midfielder to turn United from also-rans in the Premier League into title challengers.

His key job will be to inject more goals into a team that did not score enough last season. It may also lead him to sign another attacker as well as an established striker. It does, though, look unlikely that will be Antoine Griezmann after United cooled their interest.

United are confident that the future of goalkeeper David De Gea is safe, but Real Madrid will not drop their interest. Meanwhile, the door looks closed for Wayne Rooney and United’s all-time record goal scorer may depart.

Major players linked with arrival:

– Alvaro Morata, FW: Real Madrid, £60m
– Michael Keane, DF: Burnley, £25m
– Eric Dier, MF: Tottenham, £30m
– Andrea Belotti, FW: Torino, €60m
– Tiemoue Bakayoko, MF: Monaco, €40m
– Willian, MF: Chelsea, £35m
– Ivan Perisic, MF: Inter, £35m
– Victor Lindelof, DF: Benfica, £30m

Already left:

– Zlatan Ibrahimovic, FW: contract ended

Possible departures:

– Wayne Rooney, FW: Everton
– David De Gea, GK: Real Madrid
– Adnan Januzaj, MF: Lille
– Matteo Darmian, DF: AC Milan
– Chris Smalling, DF: Everton
– James Wilson, FW: Brighton

Youngsters

Mourinho will use the preseason tour games to decide which youngsters are capable of supplementing his first-team squad next season. Axel Tuanzebe impressed last summer and went on to make his senior debut. Andreas Pereira should get a chance on the tour after doing well on loan at Granada last season.

Returning from loan:

– Andreas Pereira, MF: Granada
– Adnan Januzaj, FW: Sunderland
– Sam Johnstone, GK: Aston Villa
– Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, DF: Wolves
– Guillermo Varela, DF: Eintracht Frankfurt

Mourinho took Tuanzebe, Johnstone, Pereira, Paddy McNair and Will Keane to China last summer but he was missing a number of first-teamers because of Euro 2016.

Tuanzebe is expected to travel to the US, along with Joel Pereira as the third-choice goalkeeper. There may also be chances for Scott McTominay, Josh Harrop and Demetri Mitchell after they made their debuts at the end of last season.

Possible youth-teamers to travel to US:

– Axel Tuanzebe, DF, 19
– Scott McTominay, MF, 20
– Demetri Mitchell, DF, 20
– Joel Pereira, GK, 20
– Josh Harrop, 21