Manchester United Predicted XI vs Real Madrid, International Champions Cup 2018

Manchester United's pre-season has seen them struggle. They have played four matches but haven't been able to win any of them inside the regular 90 minutes. The only match they triumphed was against AC Milan in which they won in a lengthy penalty shootout.

They suffered a humiliating defeat against their arch-rivals Liverpool, who scored four goals which with Lee Grant and Joel Periera in goal for 45 minutes each. After a string of poor games, the Red Devils lack the exhilaration which is often associated with a United squad.

United are suffering a great deal because of the players who are missing after playing in the World Cup. To add into the mess, Anthony Martial left the already depleted squad for the birth of his second child.

Antonio Valencia and Nemanja Matic are injured and ruled out till the starting weeks of the Premier League.

Jose Mourinho is apoplectic with the business done by Ed Woodward in this transfer window. After the match against Liverpool, he assailed his players saying that the squad he currently has is not even 30% of the squad.

Manchester United are now set to face Real Madrid in what will be their penultimate match of the pre-season. Their final pre-season game will be against Bundesliga champions, Bayern Munich.

Real Madrid themselves will be without a number of key players. David De Gea and Fred joined United's training camp a few days ago and Mourinho will be desperate to use them.

His aversion to Luke Shaw was observed in the previous game where Demetri Mitchell was preferred over him. Shaw himself has done nothing to impress the Portuguese in this pre-season. He has been a distant image of what he was at Southampton when Manchester United brought the left-back to the Theatre of Dreams.

Manchester United's Predicted XI and Formation

Mourinho will prefer to play in the 5-3-2 formation due to lack of options to attack. De Gea has returned to training and it's time for him to return to the lineup. Lee Grant could come off the bench in the second half.

Darmian has done nothing convincing in his stay at Manchester United to win the applause from the fans but will start at the right wing-back position as Valencia and Dalot are injured.

As Smalling is injured, Fosu-Mensah, Bailly and Tuanzebe should keep their places. Bailly earned the praise of his manager after the last match when he requested to play in place of injured smalling. Fosu-Mensah had a nervous start to the match but found his feet as the game progressed.

Tuanzebe had a poor outing against Liverpool. He needs to make the most of the opportunity he is getting as the odds for him to be a part of United's squad are already very slim.

Both Luke Shaw and Mitchell have been in poor form in this pre-season. Shaw should be given the opportunity to start as this will be a make or break moment for his Manchester United career.

McTominay won accolades from his manager in the previous campaign but has lost his touch in the US. New signing Fred could come in his place in the starting XI.

Andreas Pereira has been the only positive for the Reds in this pre-season. He is playing in a more defensive position than he prefers but has been a standout performer for Manchester United.

He deserves to be in United's squad for the next season. No more loan spells. Period.

Juan Mata should start alongside Alexis Sanchez who looked frustrated in the previous match but one cannot blame him. He has been doing almost everything he could to score goals for his side.

As Mourinho said after the match, the quality of the players around him is just not good enough.

Manchester United's Probable XI vs Real Madrid