Manchester United’s pre-season continued with a bang overnight in Chicago, but the hard work was not over at the final whistle.
Ruben Amorim was delighted after he watched his side win a second consecutive pre-season game in a convincing manner.
In the early hours of Thursday, Manchester United were in action in for the penultimate time of this pre-season tour in the USA.
United thrashed Bournemouth 4-1 in the game in a performance which was brilliant from the Red Devils, with some excellent individual displays.
United had several standout performers, with goals coming in from Rasmus Hojlund, Patrick Dorgu, Amad and Ethan Williams. In particular, Dorgu was so impressive for United as he was raved about after the game by his manager and also on MUTV.
All four goalscorers were big winners from United’s win over Bournemouth, however, while the game may have ended up quite comfortable, Amorim wasn’t about to give his team the rest of the night off.
What Manchester United squad were made to do after pre-season win
One of the most noticeable changes in Amorim’s new United team this summer has been the improvements in terms of the intensity and pressing, which has become a key part of his philosophy.
Amorim wants United to be the world’s most intense team, and this can only be accomplished by hard work and making the players physical monsters on the pitch.
This is exactly what is happening, with the players being worked extremely hard during pre-season so they are in the ideal place come August 17th.
Speaking post game on Stretford Paddock YouTube channel, Stephen Howson revealed that he had spoken with some of United’s fitness staff who said the squad were doing further work after the 4-1 win.
“We spoke to Amorim’s staff and some of the fitness staff and we were talking about how conditioned everyone has come into this looking. One of the fitness staff has just said that they’ve just done a leg day after the game, he was carrying all this weight equipment.
“So they’ve just done a leg day after the game, he said they are getting drilled. His exact words were, ‘look at the gaffer, he’s wham. The lads are going to be the exact same. He’s putting them through it.'”
The players are being put through their paces this summer and pushed beyond what they thought possible, which explains some of the incredible turnarounds in players.
Ruben Amorim outlined Manchester United’s physical weaknesses in November 2024
The constant work on fitness and physicality is only benefitting United, who last season were one of the least physical sides in the league, getting out worked by almost everybody.
This was an issue which carried over from Erik ten Hag, who built a team which simply wasn’t suited to playing in the Premier League and this showed during last season’s Europa League run, with league performances drastically worse than in Europe.
Amorim outlined physicality as an issue at United when he first took charge in November 2024, and in the nine months or so since then he has went about rectifying it.
Every signing since Amorim took charge has been a physically impressive player and raised the levels within the side and we are now seeing the benefits.
The scary part for other clubs is that this is only the start for United.
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