View: Reported outcome from friendly clash v Man United should give West Brom plenty of hope
Chances are that Slaven Bilic’s West Brom squad won’t have played too many matches that were as surreal as their friendly double header against Manchester United on Friday afternoon.
Comprised of two 60 minute friendlies, the Baggies pitted their wits against one of the biggest sides in England in a completely empty Old Trafford as they continue to step up their preparations for their Championship restart against Birmingham City next weekend.
Of course, the all-round media blackout that surrounded the meeting means that details about what actually happened in Manchester have been fairly scarce.
But according to John Percy of The Telegraph, it sounds as if the Baggies gave a relatively decent account of themselves.
A 2-1 win and a 3-1 defeat certainly aren’t results to be ashamed of, and that first one in particular is cause for some hope.
Of course, nobody can say for definite just yet as to which West Brom players faced off against which Man United stars, but a look at the two separate groups of Reds players would suggest that this was a good result regardless.
According to the Manchester Evening News, the two groups that featured at Old Trafford were as follows:
Romero, Bishop; Bailly, Tuanzebe, Mengi, Williams, Dalot, Fosu-Mensah; Matic, Pogba, Fernandes, Gomes; James, Greenwood, Rashford, Martial.
De Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Maguire, Lindelof, Shaw; Garner, Fred, McTominay, Pereira, Lingard, Chong, Mata; Ighalo.
Neither one of those groups look markedly weaker than the other, with both including good first team talent and plenty of top flight experience.
Obviously, the intensity will have been lower than might usually have been the case, and this was very much a training exercise, but to be beating United 2-1 in any circumstances is an achievement.
Hopefully, this can be a real confidence boost for the lads – not only for the remainder of this season, but for a potential return to the big time too.
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