Erik ten Hag has admitted that his Manchester United side are not “100 per cent” ready for the new season which starts when his side open the campaign at home to Fulham on Friday evening.
"The team is not ready but the league starts," said Ten Hag. "We can't hide from it. We have to deal with it."
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Ten Hag is looking to improve Man Utd’s form after finishing last season in eighth position, the club’s lowest in Premier League history. But he says he and other sides will do their best as they get up to speed.
"We are complete and we are now working together for, let's say, 10 days and always that will take a while," he told the club’s official website. “But more teams will have this problem.
“In the start of the season, don't drop points, work hard, make sure you are well organised in and out of possession - that gives you the best chance.
"But we will not [be] 100 per cent, 100 per cent form. But we have to go from game to game to improve, to get higher performance levels in the team and individual players, and we will see how quick we can go into this process."
Ten Hag confirmed that two of his signings from this week, defenders Matthijs De Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui, both bought from Bayern Munich, will be in the squad for Friday as he seeks to make a winning start to the season.
And he is confident that the injury suffered by Luke Shaw will not rule out the left-back for long.
"He will return in the short term," Ten Hag said. "It doesn't take long. Luke is a very important player for our team so we want to get him back as soon as possible but we can't force this process."
Silva eyes 'different story'
Fulham have lost three of their last four encounters with Man Utd, albeit each time by a solitary goal, but they triumphed at Old Trafford last season, thanks to a stoppage-time strike from Alex Iwobi.
Manager Marco Silva does not expect the match to unfold in the same way.
“Let's hope we can repeat at least the same type of performance that we have been playing with them last two seasons,” he told the Fulham website. “I'm going to be really pleased as a manager if I see my team play in that way.
“And of course, after, as I said, the margins can decide what is going to happen in terms of the result.
“It’s going to be the same teams there on the pitch, same stadium, but the story is going to be different. Let's hope we can repeat something similar, but the story of the game is going to be completely different.”