In normal circumstances, the whole footballing world pauses while the World Cup pans out – but nothing about the 2022 World Cup is normal.
As this tournament takes place slap bang in the middle of a season, players and managers will have to keep their minds and bodies as sharp as possible to be ready for the immediate resumption of club matters following the crowning of world champions.
After a rocky beginning to the 2022/23 campaign, Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United have boasted good form over the past five or six weeks and will do everything they can over the coming weeks to continue in that vein following the World Cup
It has been announced that Ten Hag will take the members of his squad that aren’t going to the World Cup to the south of Spain for a winter camp after a short break from training in Manchester – alright for some, isn’t it?
The Red Devils will be based in Cadiz over a week-long stay in Andalucia, where they’ll have a training camp before returning to England.
“It’s a strange season,” Ten Hag has commented. “It’s not like usual as we have a World Cup but also players will stay behind.
“We have to train them during those six weeks and we have to give them the right program so they stay in the right fitness levels, but also they stay in the right shape and also in the team style.
“We made a programme to do that, as optimum as possible,” continued Ten Hag. “So, we will train here [at Carrington] for one week, or eight or nine days, and then we will have a short break. Then we will train and go to Spain for a training camp for one week.
“There, we can train [properly]. We have good opponents over there so we can get the game practice in as well. Then we will return, ready for the second stage of the season, I would say, but a long stage, longer than usual.”
Within their training camp, United will play two friendly fixtures. The first will be on 7 December against Cadiz, who narrowly escaped relegation from La Liga last campaign, before they take on Real Betis, who topped their Europa League group with an unbeaten record this season after qualifying with a fifth-placed finish in Spain’s top flight last term.
“The week-long training camp and matches against Cadiz CF and Real Betis Balompié will also provide an opportunity for some of our younger players to experience what it is like to train within a first-team environment as well as play against two competitive La Liga sides,” stated director of football John Murtough.
Those two friendly…
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