Rui Pleased With Pre-season Progress

Manchester United assistant manager Rui Faria says the players are making excellent progress with their fitness regime ahead of the season, following another impressive pre-season victory.

The Reds ran out 3-0 winners over Norwegian side Valerenga on Sunday evening after four wins from five in the United States as part of Tour 2017, presented by Aon.

Rui spoke exclusively to MUTV after the victory in Oslo and explained how the squad has been improving game by game, and in exactly the way Jose Mourinho and the coaching staff had hoped.

“We never look to these matches and just worry about the results,” explained Faria. “Other aspects are more important than the results. Of course, if we can add the result to the performance, it’s always better. The players are doing well, they are doing what we want them to do. Every minute is important for them.

“They know that the matches are big tests for their preparations. They are doing well and we are very happy with all the players and the way they are committed to getting the best performances. In the end, it works for them and we’ll try to have them the best we can for the first important match of the season.

“It’s good to see some players’ improvement in their performance and this match was after coming from the States with people trying to adapt their sleeping to a big time difference,” he added. “So, this game went well. We could give 45 minutes to most of the players and, to some, a little bit more and everything went the way we wanted.”

The Reds claimed the win in Norway thanks to goals from Marouane Fellaini, Romelu Lukaku and Scott McTominay, who netted his first-ever senior goal for United.

“Scott is a good professional and a talented kid, so he knows what he needs to do to have a career and a proper future,” continued Rui.

“We can see that playing football is something that he loves. The tour was very important for the kid because it helps his motivation and belief.”