Manchester United ended their pre-season tour of Asia and Australia with a disappointing 2-2 draw with fellow Premier League side Aston Villa. The pitch was terrible to play on and the conditions were relentless at times.
Erik ten Hag will have been pleased with the way the front four combined at times and the first-half was completely dominated by United.
What will have pleased the manager the most is the fact that he has got both the flanks working if pre-season counts as evidence.
Diogo Dalot has come in for praise for his displays so far while new signing Tyrell Malacia started the last game against Crystal Palace and was quite steady.
Luke Shaw has a penchant for performing when he is under pressure and he did the same today with an all-energy display.
With Marcus Rashford often switching off when it came to his defensive duties, Shaw was focussed and cut out the rare forays forward Steven Gerrard’s side could muster in the opening period.
Shaw back to best?
The England international has the ability to bomb across the left flank for the entire 90 minutes and he showed glimpses of his potential for the first goal.
Under Jose Mourinho, it seemed like the former Southampton defender would not make the grade at United but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer managed to get the best out of him by bringing in Alex Telles as competition.
And that sparked the 27-year-old back to life and it was a similar pattern at Perth. He was a constant menace on the overlap and he got its just reward with a fine assist for Jadon Sancho‘s opener and he dovetailed beautifully with Rashford.
Not only his running, but his passing was flawless at times with the full-back completing 15 final third-passes and creating 2 big chances all while maintaining a 100 per cent success rate when it came to his tackling.
Ten Hag will be pleased with his full-backs on tour with Dalot developing good understadning with Sancho while Shaw already has it with Rashford.
Both have emerged as good outlets for building the attack, unlike last season and there is strength in depth to call upon if needed with Telles and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
