International Champions Cup: 5 key takeaways for Manchester United from their match against AC Milan

#5 Counter-attacking United

Jose Mourinho - AC Milan v Manchester United - International Champions Cup 2018

Mourinho set up a very different looking United side against Milan. United were missing a majority of their first team, with the first-team stars taking a well-deserved break after their involvement in the World Cup. This gave the United manager some freedom to experiment with the starting XI.

Mourinho fielded a formation reminiscent of England's from their recently concluded World Cup campaign. Matteo Darmian and Luke Shaw started as wing-backs and had a lot of opportunities to bomb forward along their respective touchlines. They got into good positions but could not make much of it.

Milan dominated the ball for large parts of the match but United looked much more threatening when they attacked, thanks to their pace and aggression on the counter. Alexis, Mata, McTominay and Pereira were all frequently involved each time United broke from defence to attack, with support from the two wing-backs. It was refreshing to see this kind of play from a United side that often tended to slow down the tempo of the game.

A similar sort of directness and tempo in attack, especially with Lukaku, Pogba, Lingard back, could be very fruitful in the coming season.