What Manchester United’s squad for preseason tour tells us

Manchester United announced it’s travelling squad for this year’s preseason tour this morning. Here is everything you need to know about the Tour 2019 and what the squad tells us about Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s plans for this season.

Twenty-eight players have been included in the squad which takes on five different teams in four different countries.

The Red Devils get started in Australia with two matches against local side Perth Glory before a fixture against Yorkshire rivals Leeds United.

Next, United travel to Singapore and take on Italian giants Inter Milan before flying north to China where they will come up against some familiar faces in Tottenham Hotspur of the Premier League.

The final leg of United’s tour is closer to home as they play AC Milan in Cardiff, Wales. Solskjaer also will be travelling to his own home as United’s last friendly prior to the league season kicking off his against Kristiansund BK.

"Manchester United preseason tour squad 2019Goalkeepers: David de Gea, Lee Grant, Sergio Romero, Joel Pereira.Defenders: Victor Lindelof, Eric Bailly, Phil Jones, Chris Smalling, Marcos Rojo, Ashley Young, Diogo Dalot, Luke Shaw, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Axel Tuanzebe.Midfielders: Paul Pogba, Juan Mata, Jesse Lingard, Andreas Pereira, Daniel James, Angel Gomes, Nemanja Matic, James Garner, Scott McTominay, Tahith Chong.Forwards: Romelu Lukaku, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Mason Greenwood."

There are no major absentees in this Manchester United squad other than Matteo Darmian and Fred. However, both players will join up with the group at a later date due to family reasons.

Alexis Sanchez has been away on international duty with Chile, trying to win a third consecutive Copa America – United’s number seven will have some extra time off to recover.

Two other players who are not in the original squad list are young goalkeeper Dean Henderson and Dutch defender Timothy Fosu-Mensah.

Henderson was on-loan at Championship side Sheffield United last season, a team who he helped win promotion to the Premier League with. The young shot-stopper has made it evidently clear he wants to play Premier League football this season, a recent tweet confirms that.

https://twitter.com/deanhenderson/status/1147202744635330562?s=20

It is looking increasingly likely that it will be with the Yorkshire club though, rather than at Old Trafford. Sheffield United’s manager Chris Wilder claimed that Henderson wants to return to Bramall Lane and United are equally content.

"“Dean made it clear to us that he has a very strong interest in coming back to Bramall Lane, and Manchester United are happy to go along with that.”"

The decision may also indicate that De Gea is close to agreeing on a new contract. Solskjaer would not have been so keen on letting the highly rated young keeper leave on-loan if De Gea was also on the way out.

Fosu-Mensah is currently recovering from a cruciate ligament injury and is not expected to take part in training this preseason.

he 21-year old has spent the last two seasons on loan at Premier League clubs, firstly with Crystal Palace and last season at Fulham. He will be hoping this season, with one year left on his contract, that he can wriggle his way back into the United first-team squad.