Man Utd training clash ends 4-4 with Rashford, Ighalo and Shaw scoring twice but stars fear burnout without fans
MANCHESTER UNITED’S intra-squad friendly on Saturday finished 4-4, with defender Luke Shaw managing to bag himself a brace. With rumours about the behind-closed-doors Old Trafford clash having circulated on social media over the last few days, the 24-year-old left-back decided to set matters straight on United’s official website. He wrote: “There have been a lot […]
MANCHESTER UNITED’S intra-squad friendly on Saturday finished 4-4, with defender Luke Shaw managing to bag himself a brace.
With rumours about the behind-closed-doors Old Trafford clash having circulated on social media over the last few days, the 24-year-old left-back decided to set matters straight on United’s official website.
He wrote: “There have been a lot of different things circulating on social media and I’m happy to set the record straight: it did end 4-4 and I did score twice!
“Also on my team, Bruno [Fernandes] got one and Jamo [Daniel James] got one, while, on the other team, Rashy [Marcus Rashford] got two and so did Odion [Ighalo].
“To be fair, my first goal was decent. It was from a great cross by Bruno and my volley went straight in. I was happy with it.
“My other one was just getting forward, Juan [Mata] played it to me on the edge of the box, I took a touch and shot in. It was quite an open game, as you can probably gather, with a lot of space, since it was the first game back.
“Everyone looked good and the most important thing was getting minutes in the tank. This was definitely a step forward from the games we’ve been having at the training ground.”
Having been put through their paces at Carrington by boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, this game was the squad’s first opportunity to sample match action at Old Trafford behind closed doors.
And Shaw found that without the 70,000-plus supporters passionately roaring them on, the pitch felt all the more cavernous.
Sometimes during games the fans push you on when you’re tired, but now we’ve got to get to grips without that support.
Luke Shaw
He continued: “It was also our first chance to get used to a silent Old Trafford, which was different.
“We all felt like it made the pitch seem bigger because the stands are totally empty. Sometimes during games the fans push you on when you’re tired, but now we’ve got to get to grips without that support.
“It was a really valuable exercise to be able to play at Old Trafford without that.
“We were creating our own noise around the stadium and that’s something we’ve got to make sure we do.”
When looking ahead to next week’s clash with Tottenham, Shaw also confirmed that every member of the squad is now fit and raring to go – including the previously injured duo of Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford.
He said: “We’ve got a couple of in-house games at the training ground scheduled over the next few days, which will help us step things up even further before the big game next week against Spurs.
“It’s a massive fixture and I think everyone on both sides has got full-strength squads now, so it should be a really good game. It’s definitely one we’re all looking forward to.”
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The Red Devils were supposed to face Stoke City at Carrington yesterday as they continue to step up their preparations.
But the match was scrapped with Potters stars having already arrived in kit, after boss Michael O’Neill was diagnosed with coronavirus.
Thankfully United last night confirmed that none of their players had been exposed to any danger.