Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has admitted that he has not been entirely satisfied with his side's pre-season.
The former Chelsea boss oversaw a win at Wigan Athletic in his first match in charge, but the club's subsequent tour of China was less successful, with a heavy defeat at the hands of Borussia Dortmund being following by the cancellation of their game against Manchester City.
The Red Devils bounced back with a convincing win over Galatasaray in Sweden as their Euro 2016 participants returned, but Mourinho expressed concerns over whether his squad are ready for the upcoming campaign on the eve of their Community Shield clash with Leicester City.
"Everything is important. Our pre-season was strange - good for some players but not enough for others. The number of matches was not enough. The match not played against Man City was really bad for us. The week of work, which I can change and say the week of no work, in China was really bad for us, so we need to train and we need to play. We need minutes for the players," he told reporters.
"We need to train against other teams like we did against Everton and Galatasaray, but that is over. Now we have no chance to train against other teams. Now we have Leicester before the Premier League and it is not a training session against another team - it is a game. I think especially for the players that were involved last season, for them it must have a meaning, because to play in the Community Shield you need to be champion or have won the FA Cup, and they won the FA Cup. So I think we have to face it as a game.
"We have six changes, not three, so that gives me the chance to give minutes to some people, a chance to play with some players who I know cannot have the condition to play for 90 minutes, so it will be a little bit of everything - and, of course, we will try to win it."
United will begin the new Premier League season away to Bournemouth next weekend.
Barney Corkhill
