Vidic: Tour Tests Will Help Players

Nemanja Vidic believes difficult matches during Tour 2017, presented by Aon, will provide the Manchester United squad with the best possible preparation ahead of next season.

Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester City lie in wait for the team's tour of the United States, while further tests will be provided by MLS sides LA Galaxy and Real Salt Lake who will be in the middle of their season.

The former United captain experienced some big matches during his one and only tour of the States with the Reds in 2011 (he is pictured above in Seattle) and he says this year's opposition should help ensure entertaining and testing matches.

"I think it’s good for the manager and good for the players to test themselves and to see where they are in that moment," he explained in an exclusive interview with ManUtd.com. "We don’t want to have easy matches winning 6-0 or 7-0 and then you come to the start of the season and you’re not where you thought you are fitness-wise. If you want to prepare well you need to have good matches.

"When I played the MLS teams I soon realised that they had the mentality to work hard and physically they’re fit and strong. I think they have a similar mentality to the Premier League and English teams. They have speed and strength so straightaway you’re facing teams who are similar to who you will play in the Premier League.

"You’ve seen big names come to MLS which has helped the players in the States improve and also allowed them to see how the top players play and how they train and of course they’ll see the experience they have. Players like Robbie Keane, David Beckham, Ashley Cole all have great experience and performed for many years at a high level. That’s what has helped to improve the MLS and I think they understand that and I think they will try to get more players over here who can help.

"I think for the American fans and Man United fans it’s great that we have these big matches that they can watch live," he added. "I’m sure there will be full stadiums and it's a great opportunity for supporters to see the great players that United, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester City have. I think it’s good experience for the MLS players too, they can come to the matches and see how the players train, how they play, how they behave. It will be good for them to learn."

Vidic travelled to New York last month for the launch of Tour 2017 and during his trip he sat down with ManUtd.com to reflect on his experiences of past visits across the globe with the Reds.

The stand-out one for him was the 2011 tour of the States, a country he believes possesses the best facilities around and will provide Mourinho's men with a perfect environment to get ready for 2017/18.

"I missed a few pre-seasons because of injury but of all the ones I did I think the USA was the best one," he declared. "There are great facilities here to prepare for the upcoming season and we have a lot of fans here, eight million in fact, so it’s good to be connected to them and give them a chance to see their idols. The tour in 2011 was definitely the best pre-season I experienced. We stayed in Chicago, Washington DC, Boston and Seattle so it was a good trip with great facilities and full stadiums. I really enjoyed it.

"For me as a player the most important thing was to have good facilities to prepare for the season. Of course everywhere we go we have fans at the hotel so nothing was different to other places we’d been. But the most important thing was the preparation and we played some good matches. We played in the MLS All-Stars match in New Jersey which was a difficult game and we played Barcelona in Washington DC and I think to prepare well for the season you need good matches and we had that. Even in Chicago, we played Chicago Fire and it was very hot and a tough match! It’s important to have good facilities as I said, good tests and to be in good cities."

Credit: Manutd.com