Man Utd stars ramp up Premier League preparations after ‘disjointed pre-season’

Manchester United have ramped up their preparations for this weekend’s Premier League opener with Crystal Palace.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side did not play on the opening weekend of the new season due to their participation in the 2019-20 Europa League knockout phase last month.

Their delayed finish to the previous campaign meant their curtain-raiser with the Eagles was put back a week, and the Red Devils will now step up their preparations for Saturday’s clash.

Solskjaer and his players were pictured arriving at their Carrington training base on Monday morning, with the manager appearing in high spirits ahead of their top-flight encounter.

Marcus Rashford and new signing Donny van de Beek were among the arrivals, as was defender Luke Shaw.

And Shaw is hopeful United can have a good season under Solskjaer, despite their 1-0 defeat by Aston Villa in a pre-season friendly over the weekend.

“Obviously it’s a friendly but I’m disappointed we didn’t win,“ he said. “And we lost. I’m really disappointed, to be honest.

Sign up for the brilliant new Mirror Football newsletter!

From the latest transfer news to the agenda-setting stories, get it all in your email inbox.

Put your email at the top of this article or follow the instructions on this link.

“We create opportunities but struggle at times to find the back of the net. As someone with the [playing] experience he has, in that sort of position, the manager is really on to the players about that in training, trying to improve that.

“But the main focus today was obviously getting minutes in the tank. It has been a very disjointed pre-season really.

“At the start of pre-season, there were only four of us training, with what’s going on at the moment, the quarantines and the internationals, so it was very difficult for us.”

Shaw has struggled with injuries over the years but the left-back is confident his woes are behind him.

He added: “I feel really good. I worked really hard over the short time everyone had off and I’m ready to go.

“We’ve trained hard and this game was really about minutes and getting ready for next week. We had a lot of players out and a lot of young players, who hadn’t been training with us. They just came with us today and played well when they got the chance.