Manchester United just received a great deal of reinforcements, and boy, do they need it! Looking brutally awful last night, in a 3-0 loss to arch-rival Liverpool in South Carolina, United just do not look anywhere near ready to face Manchester City in the Community Shield next weekend. Luckily, they welcomed back all their players who were on post international service holiday leave.
All the players who featured for their countries at the Copa America and Euro 2024 are now back at the Carrington training ground.
It’s so good to have you back at base, lads — let’s get it ???#MUFC pic.twitter.com/f8i062zvjl
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) August 4, 2024
The list includes Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot (Portugal), Kobbie Mainoo and Luke Shaw (England), Lisandro Martínez and Alejandro Garnacho (Argentina) Joshua Zirkzee (Netherlands) and Altay Bayindir (Turkey).
Zirkzee was the first new player signed by the club this summer, but he is yet to make his Red Devils debut.
Of the seven players returning to the club, he is the one who most greatly fills the biggest void.
Rasmus Hojlund injured his hamstring in the friendly loss to Arsenal a week ago, and he’s out until around the Sept. internationals. This leaves United with no true and currently fit recognized striker on the roster.
Enter Zirkzee, although it is highly unlikely that he’ll start the Manchester derby curtain raiser on Saturday.
The team’s second signing this summer, Leny Yoro, is also out injured for a significant amount of time, due to a fractured metatarsal.
While it is just preseason, and the matches don’t count, United looked very poor and out of sorts on their tour of the United States.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.