Manchester United tour squad highlights unexpected transfer priority

The Manchester United squad that landed in Los Angeles on Wednesday afternoon was an eclectic bunch, made up of some key first-team players, one new signing, a few senior professionals likely to leave the club in the next month or so and a handful of youngsters desperate to grab an unlikely opportunity.

It's a squad that Erik ten Hag had little choice over really, given the volume of players still on holiday after the end of the European Championship and Copa America, but also one that is stronger in some areas than others.

Take the attack, where Alejandro Garnacho and Joshua Zirkzee are still away, but there is enough depth available that only 18-year-old Ethan Wheatley has been called from the academy to travel, with Joe Hugill completing a loan move to Wigan instead.

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Conversely, it's a defence that looks a little bare, with three of the likely starters in Ten Hag's best XI still absent in Diogo Dalot, Lisandro Martinez and Luke Shaw. Leny Yoro will build on his first outing against Rangers while Harry Maguire needs to get up to speed having not played yet this summer.

Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Victor Lindelof are included when both could be sold during this window. Wan-Bissaka's status in the squad is unusual, a player heading towards the exit but who is the only senior full-back in the travelling party.

With Dalot and Shaw still on post-Euro 2024 breaks and Tyrell Malacia left behind at Carrington to continue fitness work, United look stretched. Wan-Bissaka is the only right-back in the squad, although Yoro and Lindelof could probably play there, while