Travis Binnion outlines five reasons why Manchester United lost to Wrexham

Manchester United Academy coach Travis Binnion says Manchester United’s inability to control the game cost them in Wednesday’s 3-1 friendly loss to Wrexham.

A young side, whose starting XI had an average age of 21, saw captain Dan Gore sent off after goalkeeper Nathan Bishop escaped a dismissal for his first-half challenge that left Wrexham striker Paul Mullin with a punctured lung.

Several senior players were involved in the match with Hannibal Mejbri impressing while Alvaro Fernandez provided the assist for United’s only goal. However, Binnion - who was leading the side with Erik ten Hag watching on in the dugout - thought United were well below par overall.

Speaking to MUTV, Binnion said: “It was an eventful night. A couple of key decisions didn’t go our way. We didn’t play well enough first half. We could have had control of the game but we didn’t quite do enough with the ball. Our structure wasn’t right, some of our decision-making wasn’t great.

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“Then the two (first-half) goals we conceded are quite avoidable so there’s a lot of learning for us tonight. Ultimately we need to be better than we were tonight.”

He added: “We’ve got to be better from tonight, that’s the main lesson from it. But we’re fortunate to be at a football club that can provide experiences like this.”

Looking ahead to the new season in the academy, Binnion said fixtures such as these and the upcoming EFL Trophy matches against lower league senior sides will help United’s youngsters to grow.

He said: “The best games in the Under-21s season are the EFL trophy games.