Manchester United “want to go for trophies” in 2024/25, insists Erik ten Hag

Old Trafford will stage the opening match of the 2024/25 Premier League season on Friday, as Erik ten Hag’s side welcome Fulham to the Theatre of Dreams for a 20:00 BST kick-off.

Speaking to the media on Thursday ahead of the campaign getting underway, the Dutchman piled on the praise for Noussair Mazraoui following the Moroccan’s arrival at the club – though he admitted it might “take a while” for United to find form.

What did Erik ten Hag say?

Heading into his third season as Manchester United boss, Erik ten Hag emphasised that he feels his side are moving “in the right direction” – and that the task for the upcoming campaign is to “integrate the new players where we think they can improve the game model and improve the team levels, and then take it from there.”

“I always have very high expectations but we want to go for trophies,” he confirmed, going on to acknowledged that the side aren’t yet firing all cylinders and admitting that “always that will take a while.”

It’s not a cause for concern for the Dutchman though, as he insisted: “More teams will have this problem. In the start of the season, don’t drop points, work hard and make sure you’re well organised in and out of possession. That gives you the best chance, but we will not be at 100%.”

“We have to go from game to game to improve, to get higher performance levels in the team and individual players and we’ll see how quickly we can go into this process.”

It’s been a busy summer at Carrington, with four high-profile new faces heading through the doors ahead of a promising campaign for the Red Devils. The latest stars to sign for Erik ten Hag’s side were Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui, with the duo both signing from Bayern Munich earlier this week.

Speaking on their availability, ten Hag insisted that the duo “will be in the squad” to face Fulham on Friday. “It’s about the players who are available and we have a good group – we can make a strong selection, we can put out a strong team, so we will do,” he added.

Mazraoui was the subject of particular praise, with the Moroccan described by his new manager as “a player who is quite difficult to put under pressure. Especially in English football, that can be very beneficial. There is always pressure on the ball and this is a player who one of his key attributes is that it’s very difficult to put him under pressure because he finds often solutions.”

With Luke Shaw ruled out for the short-term, the right-back may be called upon to fill the void on the opposite flank of the defence, with ten Hag commenting that “with Mazraoui, we have an additional one who can fill in that position s long as Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia are not available.”