Man United drew 0-0 against Leeds in their first pre-season friendly fixture of 2025 with an unusual decision spotted at half-time against the Whites
Ruben Amorim will be putting his Manchester United players through their paces in pre-season this summer (Image: Getty Images)
Manchester United began pre-season with a 0-0 draw against Leeds United on Saturday in Stockholm. Reds boss Ruben Amorim handed United debuts to new signings Matheus Cunha and Diego Leon, who both played well against the newly promoted Premier League side.
They are set to be joined this summer by Bryan Mbeumo, who will soon complete a move to Old Trafford from Brentford in a £70million deal.
The Reds will continue their preparations for the new campaign with a pre-season tour of the United States. Amorim’s side travel to Chicago on Tuesday and will be based in the city for the majority of their three-match tour.
United’s first match in the Premier League Summer Series is against West Ham United in New Jersey on July 26. They then return to Chicago to face Bournemouth before their tour concludes against Everton in Atlanta on August 3.
And one noticeable moment during the Leeds fixture on Saturday was the sight of Amorim’s players doing fitness drills at half-time. Performance monitoring technology company STATSports have since offered their explanation of the unusual scenes.
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“Interesting to see Manchester United’s fitness coaches having the players doing top up runs at half time, rather than full time,” they said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Looks like the players are doing half way to end line in
“Could be extra conditioning or simply having the players meet their individual thresholds – the players were wearing our GPS in-game, so the coaches were monitoring in real-time on the sideline.”
United’s players will be looking to reach full fitness ahead of a daunting Premier League opener at home to Arsenal on August 17. The Reds also face tough league fixtures against Manchester City and Chelsea in the opening two months of 2025/26.
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