Manchester United edged out rivals Leeds United on penalties to win the pre-season Boyle Sports Cup inside a sold-out Croke Park.
While the shootout – which almost didn’t happen due to a deluge of young pitch invaders at full-time – ultimately separated the sides, both managers will have taken plenty from this pulsating clash under the lights in Dublin.
Bryan Mbeumo’s audition to be Manchester United’s starting striker for the opening game of the season was strengthened with another smart display, while Brenden Aaronson finished off a brilliant move to level things up at 1-1 in the first half.
James Justin’s costly penalty miss as the fifth taker for Leeds allowed Noussair Mazraoui to win it with the final act as Michael Carrick’s side clinched the game 5-4 on spot-kicks.
Daily Mail Sport brings you some of the biggest talking points from an historic night in Dublin…
Joshua Zirkzee (left) and Bryan Mbeumo (right) starred as Manchester United took on Leeds
TRUST COACH CARRICK
One of the things that Ruben Amorim called for was time on the training pitch to imprint his ideas on the United squad.
They fluffed the Europe league final to secure a season without European football and bar a couple of encouraging flashes, tangible signs of style and progress never materialised.
So to see Manchester United playing as well as they have throughout this pre-season – yes, it’s pre-season – is a sign of just what good training ground coaches Carrick and his staff are proving to be.
It’s a collective effort between Carrick, Steve Holland, Jonathan Woodgate, Jonny Evans, Travis Binnion, and many analysts in the background.
Here against Leeds United, much as it was against Paris Saint-Germain in Gothenburg last weekend, you can see tangible signs of progress in the way Carrick wants this team to evolve in its pressing and its play-style.
‘He wants to have the ball, he wants to press in certain ways,’ summer signing Youri Tielemans explained on Tuesday.
‘It might be different than what you are used to, what I have been used to before, but it is logical things in my opinion. It is just smelling football, and that is what I have been doing from when I was young at Anderlecht, you know. So for me, nothing changes, but it just needs to gel together.’
United are proving a lot more aggressive in the press and the defensive work of Andrey Santos in midfield, one of the summer signings to the tune of £50million, is pivotal.
The encouraging thing is that while these haven’t been perfect performances either, there are more first team stars to come back in.
United lit up Croke Park from the start without captain and talisman Bruno Fernandes, without Tielemans, without Matheus Cunha, without the returning Marcus Rashford, without Benjamin Sesko, and Matthijs de Ligt, and Harry Maguire.
The way Leeds picked United off, capitalising on loose control from Tyler Fletcher, shows that there is still work to do.
But stylistically United, visibly at least, appear to be getting better by the game. For Manchester United fans, that’s an incredibly encouraging sign.
Throughout pre-season you can see exactly what Michael Carrick is trying to implement
MBEUMO ON A HEATER
In a summer at Manchester United which has been as much about evolution as it has been revolution, the results of the Bryan Mbeumo striker experiment are yielding some fascinating results.
The Cameroonian is far from a typical No 9 but for Michael Carrick and Manchester United’s staff, that is a big part of his appeal.
There are a multitude of factors at play here. United want to platform academy star Shea Lacey for a full-time first team role and he predominantly plays off the right. There’s also Amad, who is facing a defining season in that right-side role.
And then you add in that United only have one orthodox No 9 option in Benjamin Sesko, and he hasn’t kicked a ball during pre-season due to an ongoing shin injury, although he did travel to Ireland to take part in this week-long training camp.
So Mbeumo as a striker, and a fluid one at that, holds great appeal and perhaps importance, should United not go and add another forward between now and the transfer deadline.
Mbeumo is going to start the season up top, that now looks clear, but expect Carrick to call upon Marcus Rashford, too.
‘He’s our player,’ he said last night. ‘He’s come back great. He’s just like any other player… He gives us something a little bit different.’
Mbeumo hit a real lull in front of goal in the second half of last season and struggled to rediscover momentum that had fans off their seats in the first half leading to question marks about how Carrick may get the best out of him.
But a brace against Atletico Madrid in Stockholm, the equaliser in Gothenburg against PSG, and a brilliant piece of skill, coupled with an assist, for Joshua Zirkzee to open the scoring here in Dublin showed just how much confidence is running through Mbeumo’s veins right now.
For the opening goal here – and he should have had his own in the first half when he crashed a shot against the crossbar – he nutmegged two Leeds players as he burst down the left before playing Zirkzee through to score beyond new No 1 James Trafford.
Leeds went on to equalise through Brenden Aaronson in the first half and were good value for it after a rocky start. Despite Carrick’s side dominating the ball when their main men came on, it finished 1-1 in front of an 82,000-strong sell-out crowd at Croke Park.
Mbeumo is set to start as centre forward against Hull City to kickstart the Premier League campaign and from there the sky really does feel like the limit for him. This is a formula now, not just an experiment.
TYNAN TIME
While he didn’t quite get the loudest cheer of the night – that was reserved for the introduction of Bruno Fernandes off the bench – this was a huge milestone in the career of Tynan Thompson.
The 18-year-old arrived from Tottenham Hotspur this summer as an Emerging Talent Signing that Ineos and United’s powers love, look at Ayden Heaven and numerous others.
This was Thompson’s first taste of senior football at United and the first time he’s been away and part of Carrick’s group this pre-season.
Tynan Thompson got his first taste of senior football in a Manchester United shirt in Dublin
Thompson, who arrived in a deal that could eventually total £8m, got a pep talk from his manager moments before the second half restarted and the message, likely, was to be bold, be aggressive and have fun.
What we saw across 45 minutes was a player who looks unafraid to take people on and, in something of a quirk in the modern game, is a winger that likes to take people on on the outside.
A couple of times midway through the second half he managed to get down the left side with a quick burst and then drill a low cross in, only for Leeds to mop it up comfortably.
Sources at United won’t pigeonhole Thompson as a first team player or an Under-21 player and he’s likely to find himself straddling the two.
But don’t underestimate the value of nights like these, in front of 82,000, with the likes of Fernandes and Cunha demanding the ball off you.
This isn’t academy football any more…
HARRY’S STYLE
Speaking of rising stars, it should be an impossibility that Harry Amass is allowed to leave unless United go out and get another left back.
Sources have indicated that Amass has been told his best chance of regular minutes will come elsewhere and the club are unlikely to stand in his way for a loan or a permanent, if they get fair value.
That plan needs shelving immediately unless someone like Lewis Hall, who United have made two approaches for but failed on both occasions, walks through the door.
Amass may physically be on the smaller side in stature but he was dynamic in possession and fierce out of it here as Leeds looked to put him under real pressure, particularly early on before they clocked that they may be better off testing Diogo Dalot instead.
Amass has suitors aplenty should he walk out the door but with only Luke Shaw to call on as a bonafide left back right now, Amass should be staying until further notice.
There is no way Harry Amass can be allowed to leave without a new left back coming in
TRAFFORD IS TOP
One thing that Leeds do deserve credit for is the decisiveness they have shown in the goalkeeper department in getting a top talent in James Trafford.
They gave it as long as they could with Illan Meslier, then tried Lucas Perri out, and pivoted to Karl Darlow, now of Manchester United, before paying a club record £40m for him.
Officially Trafford got the Man of the Match here before it went to a penalty shootout and he did make a number of fine saves to keep Manchester United out, not least denying one effort from Zirkzee, and another from Mbeumo.
It cannot be understated just what a difference a truly top goalkeeper can make and if Leeds are to kick on like Brighton and Bournemouth did in getting into Europe, it is moves like Trafford that will go a long way to moving the needle.
MAKE IRELAND A YEARLY TRIP
Lastly, a sold out Croke Park was absolutely incredible, and a trip United should make yearly if the logistics were feasible.
The appetite for Manchester United in these parts is understandably huge and credit as well to the Leeds United contingent who travelled in good numbers.
Naturally the pre-season appeal is wherever the money is for Premier League clubs and the answer for Manchester United is often the United States.
But they could do a lot worse than secure themselves a near-enough home game in Ireland given how many fans turned out for this one.
A cracking trip that should give United’s execs pause for thought.
