Melbourne Cricket Ground welcomed two Premier League teams, one being one of the biggest in the world, and saw the Red Devils of Manchester demonstrate great transitional skills and intensity against the team lead by Patrick Vieira. Crystal Palace had to make their peace with a 3-1 defeat in Australia.Ten Hag unsure about Ronaldo’s future in UnitedErik ten Hag seems to know what he is doing but the pre-season and the worldwide tours of preparatory matches are hardly an indicator of how things will develop once the official campaigns and competitions begin. The Dutch expert lead United to a 4-0 win against bitter rivals Liverpool a week ago in Bangkok (truth be told, the Reds did not bring out their best squad), then on the 15th Aussie side Melbourne Victory were defeated 4-1 while today’s match against the Eagles showed that ten Hag’s men did not come to this warm-up matches to jog.What brings hope to Man United fans is the form of once ‘forgotten’ players such as Anthony Martial, Donny van de Beek and Marcus Rashford. Also, Jaydon Sancho is also looking a bit more like that dangerous player from Borussia Dortmund. Today’s encounter with the south London club presented a Man United equipped with speed to work magic in counterattacks. The second and the third goal were the epitome of that.Returnee from a loan from Sevilla Martial scored one and assisted in his team’s third goal today (scored three in three matches); returnee from Everton Donny van de Beek also recorded an assist. Many decided to write the two off but it looks like ten Hag has what it takes to wake up these two footballers.David De Gea did concede a goal in the 74th minute but it mattered little – the Red Devils had the match under control, ten Hag had a lot to be happy about but again, one cannot stress it too much – pre-season form can deceive both the public and the team itself.Manchester United end their tour ‘down under’ with a match against Aston Villa in four days time, after which they face Atletico Madrid in Oslo, Sweden on July 30.
