Manchester United ‘not ready’ for Fulham in Premier League season opener

The English Premier League season returns on Friday when Manchester United host Fulham at Old Trafford.

• Who: Manchester United vs Fulham
• What: English Premier League opening game
• Where: Old Trafford, Manchester, United Kingdom
• When: 8pm local time (19:00 GMT) on Friday, August 15
• How to follow: Al Jazeera Sport will have all the build-up and full text commentary of the game

Manchester United kick off the new English Premier League season with the visit of Fulham on Friday but there are just as many questions surrounding the club as there were when the last campaign ended.

Those areas of doubt were added to on Thursday when United manager Erik ten Hag revealed his side “is not ready but the league starts”.

The Dutchman, who saw his side lose 3-0 to Liverpool in their final preseason match, added, “We can’t hide from it. We have to deal with it.”

The fact that it was the visitors Fulham who provided one of the Red Devils’ biggest upsets last season will not be lost on ten Hag.

The west London club won 2-1 at Old Trafford in February following an underwhelming display by the home side that saw Fulham take the lead through Calvin Bassey. Harry Maguire levelled matters with one minute of normal time to play, offering United hope of an unlikely and undeserved win, but it was the visitors that came away with all three points after Alex Iwobi settled matters 60 seconds after Maguire’s goal.

That result marked the start of a 17-game run to finish the season during which United recorded only six wins alongside five defeats.

One of those victories was May’s FA Cup final win against rivals Manchester City – a game that may well have saved ten Hag’s job. The Dutchman would have to wait until early July to hear that the season review, by the new owners of football operations at the club INEOS, resulted in a contract extension. The duration leaves question marks as to how wholeheartedly the Jim Ratcliffe-owned group believe in ten Hag and a sharp focus will be on early season results.

Fulham won only two of their final nine Premier League games at the end of last season – suffering four defeats in that run – but finished in a more than respectable 13th spot.

It was their away record that saw them slip from the 10th-placed finish they achieved the year before. That year, only five teams betted Fulham’s seven league wins on the road, and only three teams conceded fewer than Fulham’s 24 on their travels. But last year, life on the road was far more difficult.

Marco Silva’s side managed only four away wins, one of those being at Old Trafford, and just five sides conceded more than the 37 they shipped at opposition venues.

The loss of key defenders Tosin Adarabioyo to Chelsea and Tim Ream to Major League Soccer club Charlotte FC will not help matters for Silva, but it could be the departure of Joao Palhinha to Bayern Munich that leaves the biggest hole in the Londoners’ side.

For United, signing defenders Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui from Bayern Munich this week will ease concerns at the back and Joshua Zirkzee will also be expected to hit the ground running after Dutch striker joined from Bologna.

The biggest boost that ten Hag could perhaps have hoped for was the contract extension that his captain Bruno Fernandes has signed with the club. The Portuguese midfielder has been United’s standout player in many a dark hour in recent years and no player has better captured the Red Devils’ swagger of old than the 29-year-old, whose new three-year deal was announced on Wednesday.

Manchester United team news

Leny Yoro will be unavailable for three months with a foot injury sustained in preseason against Arsenal. The 18-year-old defender was a summer signing from Lille.

United will also be without striker Rasmus Hojlund and defender Luke Shaw for the visit or Fulham.

Harry Maguire will be given a late fitness test after the central defender picked up a knock in the Community Shield, which means new signings Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui could both be handed debuts.

Fulham team news

Fulham enter the season with a fully fit squad to take with them to Old Trafford.

New record signing Emile Smith Rowe, who arrived from Arsenal, should make his competitive debut for the Cottagers.

Head-to-head

This will be the 89th meeting between the clubs with the first fixture coming in London in March 1908 in the FA Cup – much like the last meeting it resulted in a 2-1 win for Fulham.

United have won 56 of the encounters to Fulham’s 14. Prior to last season’s win, Fulham had not beaten United since a 3-0 win at Craven Cottage in March 2009. A run of 15 wins in 18 games followed for United.