Manchester United travel to the DW stadium to face Wigan Atheltic on 16th of July in what will be Mourinho’s first outing as a United manager. This friendly kicks off an important pre-season for United as Mourinho has to decided on which players to sell and what positions in the squad need to be strengthened.
Mourinho is expected to use his favoured 4-2-3-1 formation at Man United and so he will be using that in all the pre-season friendlies too. As all the players who travelled to France for the Euros are not available for selection, Mourinho has a limited pool to select from.
Although the first competitive lineup which Mourinho picks as a Manchester United coach will be completely different to this one, we should get an idea on how Mourinho intends to play this season. When he took over at Chelsea for the second time, Mourinho did try to play an expansive style of football. In the initial part of the second year, Chelsea were rampant but as they hit a bad patch of form in the second half, Mourinho went back to his “Defence-first” style which eventually won them the title. It remains to be seen, how the Old Trafford crowd will react to an defensive approach given the attacking traditions of the club.
One major advantage for the Portuguese is that for the past three years, United fans have witnessed some of the most dire football in Man United’s modern history. So whatever Mourinho serves up provided the team wins, the fans will be pleased.
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