Angel Gomes is one of the academy players who has been invited to the Manchester United pre-season tour of Australia. Having already beaten Perth Glory 2-0 in the opening match, we have games against Leeds, Inter Milan and Tottenham Hotspur on the horizon.

Gomes came on at half-time against Perth Glory and on MUTV claimed that what they have been working on in training paid off.

“Everything that you saw in the game is what we’ve been practising,” said the 18-year-old. “We’ve been working hard, trying to get the front-foot press and trying to create and score as many goals as possible. We’ve got very quick, direct and pacy players and we tried to press, stay high, get everyone locked up. We did that so we could create more chances, win the ball up higher and try to dominate the game.”

While this wasn’t a real test, and won’t improve the Manchester United chances of success in the season ahead, it was good to see Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s work pay off.

Manchester United are currently sitting just outside the top-four EPL contenders at +2500 according this article by Lindsay Van Gyn.

Marcus Rashford, who scored the opening goal against Perth, had already said that he had noticed an increased intensity in training.

“It was typical Marcus,” Gomes continued. “He’s lethal anywhere around the box and he took his chance. I’m happy for him to get the goal.”

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While the two had are friends, there’s no doubt that Gomes will have been even happier to see his youth team mate Jimmy Garner score the second goal.

“We’ve been going on at him about scoring more from outside the box, so we won’t hear the end of it now!” he said. “Before the game we were speaking about what we’d do [as a celebration] if any of us, the younger lads, scored. He didn’t go off and celebrate – I told him to – but he’s very happy and all of the lads are buzzing for him.”

Gomes will be hoping that he does enough to impress Solskjaer that he earns more regular first team football. Since making his debut in May 2017, Gomes has only made another three appearances for the club. Obviously time is on his side, as he’s only 18, but he will be wanting to get more playing time in the season ahead.

“I enjoy playing out wide as I get to come inside, and I get to rotate with players like Juan. But I don’t mind playing anywhere on the pitch as long as it’s for the club.”