Manchester United will have up to 16 players possibly take part in International matches this week. The break is good for some players to get rest and some to get key minutes in search of form and fitness.
The Players on Duty
Dean Henderson, Marcus Rashford, Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw and Jesse Lingard (loan) were all called up by Gareth Southgate for England. Dylan Levitt and Daniel James were called up for Wales, Scotland called up Scott McTominay. Donny van de Beek was called up by the Netherlands and Victor Lindelof by Sweden. Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial were called up by the French and David De Gea by Spain to round off Europe. Amad Diallo and Eric Bailly were also selected by the Ivory Coast squad.
How Did They Do?
Donny van de Beek: Donny was left on the bench against Turkey, needing minutes to gain fitness and form he would be disappointed to be left out of the starting XI by Frank De Boer. The Turks jumped out to a 2-0 at halftime and compounded Dutch woes with a third goal right after halftime. It is hard to justify DVB being picked over some of the more inform Dutch players, but after going down 3-0 it is disappointing not to see the Netherlands change structure, even at halftime. The Dutch did pull two goals back to make it 3-2 with around 15 minutes left. Burak Yilmaz’s hat-trick finished off the Dutch making it 4-2. No DVB, but they play Latvia and Gibraltar, so hopefully he will get minutes.
Daniel James: James gets the start up top with Gareth Bale for the Welsh against the number one international team in the world, Belgium. Dan James occupied more of the left side when the play stated. Wales took a shock lead in the 11th minute when Bale and Harry Wilson combined for the breakthrough. It was always going to tough against Belgium, a lot of running and defending for James after Wales scored the goal. James had a couple of good chances early in the second half, close but no goal. Belgium went on to win 3-1.
Paul Pogba and Anthony Martial: Both were on the bench against Ukraine in their qualifying match. Both came on in the second half Pogba for Giroud in the 63rd minute and Martial for Mbappe in the 77th minute. Griezmann’s first half goal was cancelled out by Kimpembe second half own goal. A gritty Ukraine side got a good result against the defending world champions. Pogba moved well but failed to make a huge impact.
Bruno: Also on the bench for the Portuguese versus Azerbaijan. Bruno came on for Joao Moutinho at half time, but Azerbaijan was stubborn and Portugal won 1-0. Bruno had a couple of long range shots easily saved, a decent run for the Manchester United playmaker.
It was not the best day for Manchester United players, but the most important thing was that nobody suffered an obvious injury.
