Manchester United defender believes pre-season work will iron out flaws in Ruben Amorim’s 3-4-3 system

Matthijs de Ligt is confident the physical and tactical work undertaken on Manchester United’s pre-season tour of the United States will pay off when the Premier League gets underway next month.

United opened the trip at the weekend with a 2-1 win over West Ham and they will also play Everton and Bournemouth in the Summer Series before returning home to take on Fiorentina at Old Trafford on August 9.

They open their league season at home to title challengers Arsenal eight days later.

Manchester United are working hard – De Ligt

De Ligt is expected to be a key man in Ruben Amorim’s three-man defence and the Netherlands international believes it has been invaluable to spend some time away as a squad.

“It’s going really well. Trained really hard,” he told MUTV.

“It’s a little bit different [with the] temperatures, a different environment, but it’s also really nice to see the facilities, the facilities are really good, and yeah, it’s just really nice. Nice feeling.”

United making progress on a three-man defence

Amorim’s preferred 3-4-3 formation failed to gel last season with United finishing 15th in the top flight and managing just 42 points, their lowest since relegation in 1973-74.

They have been able to work on patterns of play while Stateside and also doing more traditional physical workouts.

“I think both [types of session] are important,” added De Ligt. “Obviously, we saw in the Premier League last season how fit every team is, so that’s a really big aspect.

“But also, we have a lot of time now to train tactically, because last season we had the Europa League and a lot of games, so it was more difficult for the manager to implement his idea.

“They’re both really important, and I’m sure, and I’m seeing already, we’ve made some steps in both aspects, so hopefully we can keep improving that.”

Mount ready to finally make his mark

The season ahead is a big one for Mason Mount, who has struggled with injuries since moving north from Chelsea two years ago.

Mount was an England regular when he opted to join United and will hope to push himself back into contention ahead of next summer’s World Cup.

“I look at the end of last season and that was positive for me, to get back in the shape that I was in and be able to play and finish the end of the season off, to get a few goals, and to be back in and amongst the lads. That’s the most important thing,” he said.

“We’re all in this together, and I think this period now is so important for us to spend together to train. But yeah, personally, I’m feeling really good. I feel like I’m in a really good place at the moment.

“I’m so excited for the start of the season.”

He added: “We’ve had a long break, just over five weeks. That felt very, very long. I think after about two, you start getting itchy and you want to start getting back training again.

“It was good to really focus on getting that rest period, just switching off and relaxing, but then slowly building that up again, getting ready for the first day that we were back in.

“We’d been told that it was going to be tough from the get-go, so we had to be ready for that.”

Vittek leaves Manchester United for Bristol City

United have signed Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha so far this summer but have struggled to get players out with four members of the ‘Bomb Squad’ – Alejandro Garnacho, Tyrell Malacia, Antony and Jadon Sancho – still training back at Carrington.

Marcus Rashford has departed on a season-long loan to Barcelona with the Spanish champions having the option to make the deal permanent next summer.

Another exit was confirmed today with goalkeeper Radek Vittek joining Bristol City on loan for the season.

The 21-year-old signed a new three-year contract with United before moving to Ashton Gate.

Adblock test (Why?)