Manchester United Organise Behind-Closed-Doors Friendly This Week

Manchester United will face National League side Wrexham in a behind-closed-doors friendly match, after returning from their pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia.

That's according to Richard Fay of the Manchester Evening News, who revealed that the mid-week game has been planned against the English fifth tier opposition.

The Red Devils have played four games under Erik ten Hag so far, with slow improvements being evident.

Bangkok saw United thrash Liverpool 4-0 at the beginning of the tour, that was followed by wins against Melbourne Victory and Crystal Palace in their first stint down under.

A perfect tour was denied in the last moment of the last game as Aston Villa scored in the 90th minute to secure a 2-2 draw in Perth.

Erik ten Hag was impressed with what he seen whilst with the travelling squad, but also stressed the need for further improvement.

"The players in the team do really well and they respond well to practising, the exercises, to the game plan and to the principles we present on them.

"So you see something is rising. Are we happy with it? It’s a starting point.

"There’s a long way to go and there’s a lot of room for improvement. We know that, but until now the guys do really well."

With two more pre-season games scheduled, there was time for more fine-tuning before the Premier League curtain raiser against Brighton.

United travel to Oslo to face Atletico Madrid on 30 June, before returning to Manchester on the following day to play Rayo Vallecano at Old Trafford.

Alamy

However, the aforementioned report says that the behind-closed-doors fixture will be played in mid-week as an extra game for Ten Hag's men.

It added that while the game was initially believed to be a match against a United youth side, it is now understood that Ten Hag wants to utilise some senior players in the match, with those in need of minutes ahead of the new season likely to be involved.

This could mean minutes for new boys Christian Eriksen and Lisandro Martinez, who were present at Carrington on Tuesday. They could be afforded some much needed game-time ahead of the season.

Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo was also spotted returning to Carrington, he arrived on Tuesday morning to speak with the club and the manager following his wishes to leave the club should a bid come in.

According to David Ornstein, those inside of United believe that his return is a positive sign and sources around the matter believe him staying is increasingly likely. However, there is still a lack of clarity on the situation.

Manchester Evening News

United host Graham Potter's team on 7 July before heading to London to face Brentford the following week.