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Manchester United continued their preparations for next season with their third preseason fixture, defeating Inter Milan 1-0 in the International Champions Cup in Singapore.
The International Champions Cup is a prestigious friendly tournament contested by the biggest clubs in Europe and the Americas, played across different venues in the world.
The victory follows the Red Devils convincing 4-0 trouncing of Leeds United in Australia and means that Ole Gunner Solksjaer's men have now won three fixtures on the bounce.
In this piece, we shall be presenting three talking points from the match.
#3 Mason Greenwood continues with his impressive trajectory
Mason Greenwood is a Manchester United trained striker who earned rave reviews for his displays with the junior teams.
He impressive strides with the junior ranks did not go unnoticed and he saw his efforts rewarded with a promotion to the senior team, making his debut in the Champions League victory over PSG in March 2019 at the age of 17 years and 156 days.
This made him the second youngest debutant in the competition for Manchester United behind Norman Whiteside some 63 years ago and youngest in the Champions League era.
Four days later, he made his league bow in a 2-0 defeat to Arsenal to become the second-youngest league debutant in the club's history.
The coming campaign was earmarked as one which would catapult the 17-year-old to glory and keeping in line with this, Solksjaer has handed the youngster minutes in each of Manchester United's pre-season fixtures till date.
Having started the last match against Leeds United and netted his first senior goal after only four minutes, Greenwood started the fixture against Inter from the bench, with Anthony Martial occupying the central attacking role while Marcus Rashford operated out left.
The England international gave way for his younger colleague in the 66th minute and Greenwood needed just 13 minutes to make a mark on the game, opening the scoring with a delightfully taken finish.
This means he has scored in consecutive matches, sending serious markers to his manager about his readiness to become a mainstay in the senior team.
Greenwood has earned praise for his composure and maturity on the ball and while it might still be too early to judge him, if he is to continue with this trajectory, he could well be on his way to becoming a regular for the Red Devils.
#2 Antonio Conte gives first glimpse of his new-look Inter Milan
Following on from the termination of Luciano Spalleti's contract as Inter Milan boss, Inter Milan hired Antonio Conte as his replacement in the dugout.
The 49-year-old is one of the most revered and decorated managers in the game at the moment and made a name for himself at Juventus and Chelsea where he won a sizable number of trophies.
Having initially received criticism over the workability of his preferred 3-4-3 formation in England, Conte stuck to his guns and persevered, totally dominating the whole Premier League with his conquering Chelsea side en-route their league triumph in 2017.
His methods were seen as so successful in a notoriously tactically stoic England that it spurned 17 other EPL managers as well as the English national team to emulate his methods, while Wolves also won the 2018 Championship playing with three at the back.
However, he departed Chelsea in acrimonious circumstances, with his replacement reverting to a more familiar system.
Football is a dynamic sport that constantly evolves and with the sport having moved on, it seems like eons ago when Conte was dominating all with his unique system.
His reappointment with Inter Milan offers an opportunity to reestablish his genius and the game against Manchester United gave an inkling into how his side would operate.
If there were hopes of seeing Conte change his methods, they were quickly dashed as the formations revealed that Inter would play with his tried and tested system, with wing-backs operating in place of the traditional full-backs.
Also, there was no space for wantaway forward Mauro Icardi as Conte has made it explicitly clear that he has no plans for the erstwhile skipper.
#1 Solskjaer willing to give everyone a run-in
Towards the end of last season, Solskjaer stated that almost all United players were playing for their future and this was a line he towed towards the start of preseason, promising that everyone would be given a clean slate to prove themselves.
His actions so far have backed his words, as the Norwegian has stayed true to his claim and given everyone an opportunity.
In the game against Inter Milan, the 46-year-old made 12 substitutions, with every player who started the match including David de Gea making way for a teammate at one point or the other.
This goes in line with the path he has towed in all of United's pre-season fixtures so far, with young players, in particular, getting a run-in.
It might be foolhardy to suggest that all the players are on equal footing, as a semblance of hierarchy would be established once the proper season kicks in, but Solskjaer is using these preseason fixtures as a gauge and you can expect those that pass to feature in his plans once the campaign gets underway.
