Manchester United were beaten 3-0 by Burnley in a behind-closed-doors friendly clash at their Carrington training ground on Wednesday.
While details on the encounter were sketchy, it is believed that Jonny Evans, Hannibal Mejbri, Alvaro Fernandez, Scott McTominay, Anthony Martial, Donny van de Beek, and Facundo Pellistri were among the starters for United.
Both sides were using the game as a training exercise with the fact that it was played without fans or media in attendance being a ploy by both sides to play their cards close to their chest in terms of formation ideas to upcoming opponents in the Premier League.
The outcome of the game will do little to quell concerns on a slow start made by Erik ten Hag’s side to their 2023/24 campaign.
Saturday’s limp two-goal defeat at Tottenham followed a hugely unconvincing narrow victory over Wolves the previous week.
In that context, the result of this clash against Burnley – who have played just one Premier League match thus far, losing 3-0 on the opening day against champions Manchester City – will only add to growing worries among the United fanbase.
While a return of three points from their opening two Premier League matches is far from a disastrous outcome – and indeed is a significant improvement on their opening two games of last season – and they should have led at Tottenham before a concerning second half showing, there is a growing sense of frustration at the club.
