Promising partnership… Wayne Rooney and Memphis Depay have shown signs of forming an effective alliance up front this summer and while neither scored on Wednesday night, their link-up play in the final third hinted at a more successful future together. The highlight was arguably a neat exchange in the 15th minute, when Rooney took the ball on the left and played a short pass back inside for his Dutch team-mate to run onto, before Memphis then hit a powerful shot that just flew over the bar. Yes, there is a long way to go with them, but there are certainly signs for optimism.
Flying full-backs… During his summer break, Luke Shaw took one of the club’s fitness coaches on holiday with him to Dubai and the results have been evident throughout his four appearances on Tour 2015, presented by Aon. Apart from his unfortunate own goal, the left-back was excellent against the French champions and his all-action, offensive style of play was mirrored on the opposite flank by new signing Matteo Darmian, who has quickly made an impression on United fans. The Italian was constantly up and down the wings, on both sides, and even displayed his crossing ability on several occasions. He looks a top buy.
Pereira's progress… One of the biggest positives from this tour has been the performance of United’s youngsters and Andreas Pereira has arguably been the pick of the bunch. The Brazilian shone against Club America, scored against San Jose Earthquakes and helped cement a victory over Barcelona. Pereira's latest cameo arrived in Chicago as a half-time substitute for Ashley Young and he did not disappoint, showing plenty of enthusiasm on the left wing and playing a sumptuous pass for Rooney that led to Memphis going close on 62 minutes. On a similar theme, it was great to see another youngster, Sean Goss, finally get some minutes on the pitch after observing the three previous matches.
No players injured – can you believe that? Last summer’s US tour was riddled with unfortunate injuries that led to United starting the season with a number of youngsters in the team. Although the rookies did an admirable job, in difficult circumstances too, van Gaal is delighted to have a larger squad to choose from for next weekend's Barclays Premier League opener against Tottenham Hotspur. “There is more competition now,” the boss explained in his post-match press conference, with one eye on Spurs. “There is more balance in the selection. I have a lot of confidence to start the competition.”
Sharpened minds... Okay, we are stretching it here, but there is an argument to be made that losing to PSG could actually benefit United in the long-run. After all, it has been well documented that van Gaal’s men won every single pre-season game last summer but lost against Swansea City in the curtain-raiser at Old Trafford. Now, having suffered a defeat, the players are presumably eager to bounce back and van Gaal hinted that could be the case. “Yeah, we lose, but maybe that is also good because last year we won everything [on tour] and then we lost the first match in the Premier League,” he explained. “Now the sequence is a little bit different.”
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