Dortmund, who were competing in their fifth pre-season affair compared to United’s second, made their extra sharpness count as they raced into a two-goal lead in the first half in Shanghai. I do the same for players.
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“He’s building a squad and I’m looking forward to seeing much bigger players, so I’m excited about that”. The Louis van Gaal era held many players back and part of me feels that he could have just been another victim.
‘I’ve only had one day with him before we came out but it was a very good training session.
“You are speaking about eight players that are not yet involved”.
A number of the 25-man squad brought to China will be moved onto pastures new in the coming weeks, while United are working hard to make a final acquisition.
Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola may have to wait to resume their rivalry as bad weather in Beijing has placed the first Manchester derby on foreign soil into doubt. “The striker will be the easy one to finish the puzzle”.
New signings Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Eric Bailly are already in place, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic still to report for pre-season training, and United continue to pursue a potential world-record deal for Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba.
“Then the market will be open until the 31st of August and sometimes things happen you are not expecting for and you have to react”.
Meanwhile, Tuchel can take plenty of encouragement from Dortmund’s performance and he still has Mario Gotze – who re-signed from Bayern Munich this week – and Andre Schurrle to integrate into the team.
Ibrahimovic is still on holiday following Euro 2016, where his Sweden side failed to make it out of the group stage, and will not feature in the International Champions Cup matches against Borussia Dortmund and Manchester City.
“I have the contract I have and for that the owners are happy”, Mourinho said.
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Torrential rain and thunderstorms are forecast for the area but a spokesman for the competition said: “The weather has been really bad, but we’re hopeful the game will go ahead”.
