Manchester United tour diary: watch Anthony Martial impress in training

With Cristiano Ronaldo absent from the tour for personal reasons and facing an uncertain future at Old Trafford amid his desire to leave, Anthony Martial has been making the most of the opportunity afforded him. With three goals in as many games on tour, the France striker has been making a strong impression on Ten Hag and it has been much the same in training, where his touch, movement, awareness and finishing have all caught the eye. 

In one instance in training which Telegraph Sport captured on video, Martial nonchalantly plucked a long pass from David De Gea out of the air and laid the ball off for Bruno Fernandes to shoot. In another clip, Martial is seen teeing up Fernandes to score. Fernandes’ quality in training has shone through on tour and it seems the Portugal midfielder has a key role to play under Ten Hag going forward.

Nice nonchalant touch from Anthony Martial to pull David De Gea’s long pass out of the sky and then lay off for Fernandes to shoot #MUFC pic.twitter.com/cdVffBhfN5

There was no let up in training on Thursday morning as around 5,000 fans poured into the Waca, another of Australia’s iconic cricket grounds, to watch Erik ten Hag put Manchester United’s squad through their paces. Marcus Rashford felt the full force of a superb recovery challenge by Eric Bailly at one stage which, as the accompanying video shows, left the England striker hobbling for a moment. 

Marcus Rashford feeling the full force of a recovery challenge from Eric Bailly in training at the Waca Stadium in rainy Perth this morning #MUFC pic.twitter.com/uQpV64Qxny

Erik ten Hag’s backroom staff of Mitchell van der Gaag, Steve McClaren and Eric Ramsey plus technical director Darren Fletcher were busy laying out the cones and setting