Watch: Man Utd’s Zidane Iqbal destroys Fabinho with filthy turn
Manchester United‘s hope for the future lies in youth and 19-year-old Zidane Iqbal proved it by sending Liverpool’s Fabinho for a hot dog with a delightful bit of skill in a pre-season game against Liverpool on Tuesday.
United are in the midsts of a pre-season tour that will see them travel to Thailand, Australia and Norway – and they kicked things off in style on by beating old rivals Liverpool 4-0 in their first friendly.
The two giants of English football faced off at Bangkok’s Rajamangala Stadium and the work that new boss Erik ten Hag has been doing in training paid off.
The Dutch coach has already set out his stall in the first few sessions with his new players, screaming at Jadon Sancho when unhappy with his decision-making and punishing United defenders for conceding goals in another session.
While it all looks a lot like hard work, United put in a performance against Liverpool that will give fans hope of an improvement on last season’s dire displays in 2022-23.
They got off to a bright start in Bangkok, scoring early through Jadon Sancho and adding to their lead when Fred brilliantly lobbed Alisson in the Liverpool goal.
Anthony Martial then made it 3-0 before Ten Hag changed all 11 players at half-time.
One of those substitutes, Facundo Pellistri, made it 4-0 with 14 minutes left on the clock, but perhaps the most impressive second-half performance was from academy graduate Iqbal.
The Manchester-born Iraq international showed a number of composed, intelligent touches and he really turned on the style at one point to leave Fabinho feeling a little bit silly.
After picking up the ball in midfield, he ran back towards his own goal, faking to go left before nimbly turning to his right as Fabinho ran right past him.
Iqbal then burst forward, surging between two opposition players to start another United attack.
After making his senior United debut last season, Iqbal will be looking to push on under Ten Hag this term and will have done his chances of more first-team action absolutely no harm here.
Zidane https://t.co/a2PNliyZzz
— 🇨🇩🇸🇱 (@F1avs) July 12, 2022
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