Matic: Everyone needs to be ready for next season

Nemanja Matic says he and his Manchester United team-mates must approach the new season in a positive manner and hit the ground running from the very first day.

While it may feel like 2018/19 has only just finished, the Premier League fixtures for 2019/20 will be announced tomorrow (Thursday) and United's first pre-season match - against Perth Glory in Australia - is only four-and-a-half weeks away.

As one of the club’s senior players, Matic believes that beginning the new campaign in a positive manner is essential for the Reds’ chances of claiming silverware next year.

“I think we need to be focused from the first day, to prepare physically and to be ready mentally for the season which is in front of us,” the Serbian said.

“We [must] think positively. We want to win trophies, so I think everyone needs to be ready.“

Matic is enjoying a rare summer off with no international football to contend with, but the 30-year-old admitted it is difficult to fully switch off from the sport, even during the summer.

“It’s not possible to not think about football because it is my life,” he said. “Twenty-four hours a day, most of the time I think about football, apart from [when I'm thinking about] my family. It is something that I’ve done since I was 5 years old.

“Even in the summer, I play football with my son and I play two-touch with my brother.“

The former Chelsea midfielder is preparing for his third season as a United player and says he is looking forward to catching up with his team-mates when pre-season begins at the start of June.

“The mood is always great,” he said. “But last summer, because we had the World Cup, we had a shorter holiday and didn’t have as much time to rest.

“This time I think we will have more days off, so I think by the start of July we’ll be in a good mood.

“I've had many hard pre-seasons, especially when I started playing football in Serbia,” he added.

“We had some old-school coaches [in Serbia], one month without the ball, just running. I don’t think Ole [Gunnar Solskjaer] will do the same.”

Our pre-season schedule this summer will, of course, lead towards the first Premier League game of the season, and the Reds will soon discover which top-flight side we will face first in August.

While Matic downplays the significance of the opening opponents' identity, he admits he would love to begin the new campaign in front of the Old Trafford faithful.

“I’m getting excited about the new season,” said our no.31. “But I won’t look at the fixtures a lot because you have to look game by game.

“The next game is always the most important, so when the fixtures come out, the most important is the first game, so you are focused on your first game. Then when you’ve finished that you can think about the second one.

“In football it’s not good to think about a game that comes later, so you need to be focused always on the next challenge.”

“It’s always better to start at home, in front of our supporters,” the midfielder added.

“But, as I said, the season is long and that’s not something you can change, but it’s always to good start at Old Trafford, of course.”