TONY’S IN TERRIFIC FORM
Martial returned to United in the summer with a point to prove, having spent the second half of the last campaign on loan with Sevilla. The Frenchman scored just twice in 23 appearances across 2021/22 and, although pre-season games don’t tend to enter the record books, he’d already beaten that after just 107 minutes of friendly action. Tony had gone close twice before eventually succeeding, with the second of those efforts forcing Butland into a fingertip save which actually caused the Palace stopper to be withdrawn due to injury. His pre-season scoring run is now United’s best since 2007/08.
DELIGHTFUL BY DONNY
Erik substituted all 10 outfield players at half-time in the wins over Liverpool and Melbourne Victory, but only Scott McTominay left the field at the interval this time, and he was replaced by Donny van de Beek. Our no.34 took under five minutes to make an impact, as United scored a superb team goal on a par with any seen on tour so far. It looked like Martial had gone too far across goal initially, but he ushered the ball to van de Beek, who displayed stunning vision and great selflessness to find the incoming and unmarked Rashford. 2-0, too good.