Quick thoughts from...Manchester United vs ASEAN All-Stars
Yes, it's a meaningless friendly. Yes, Man United are bad. But I'm intrigued to see what both teams can bring, even just a little bit.
Man United are bad. I feel like that has become a fact and less of a myth at this point. They still win trophies and make a few finals here and there, but winning an FA Cup is not even considered as a success for the red side of Manchester in recent seasons. Lots of managerial changes, even more money spent on the transfer market, yet the team keep on finding new lows for every season that goes by.
The 2024-25 season is no difference from the past few seasons, even with a new manager at the helm. Rúben Amorim came in from Sporting CP with high expectations, yet Man United finished the Premier League season at 15th and lost their second Europa League final in a row to an inspired Ange Postecoglou-led Tottenham Hotspur. Known for being “Spursy” (always losing big matches), yet Tottenham were the ones who held their nerves to come out on top with their first trophy in 17 years. Amorim’s side would have another chance to win a trophy though, in the form of…the Maybank Challenge Cup (apparently?) against the ASEAN All-Stars.
Theoretically speaking, Man United should be the favourites in every sense even if they had brought a lot of youngsters with them to Malaysia. The All-Stars were comprised of the best players from the ASEAN region…and the Australian A-League (?), but the gap in quality between regular players in Europe and ASEAN should give Man United a bit more confidence that they could end a season with a high, even if it was a meaningless trophy.
Lineups
If you have followed my coverage of the 2024 ASEAN Cup, which is still available on my blog, a lot of these names would be quite familiar to you since most of them were (and still are) regular starters for their respective national team, including the team’s manager, Kim Sang-sik, who led Vietnam to their third-ever ASEAN Cup at the beginning of the year.
Some notable names in the starting lineup includes (#1) Thai keeper Patiwat Khammai, (#12) Filipino centre-back Amani Aguinaldo, the midfield duo of (#8) Malaysian-Argentinian veteran Ezequiel “Sergio” Agüero and (#6) Filipino talent Sandro Reyes, who I gave high praises for his performance at the ASEAN Cup, (#9) Vietnamese attacking midfielder Nguyễn Hai Long, and (#20) Ivorian-Cambodian striker Abdel Kader Coulibaly. Other notable names on the bench include (#71) Singaporean centre-back Irfan Fandi, (#17) Laotian midfielder Bounpachan Bounkong, (#14) Vietnamese midfield star Nguyễn Hoàng Đức, (#10) Thai-English midfielder Ben Davis, and (#11) Burmese attacker Maung Maung Lwin.
The biggest surprise for me is, somehow, the ASEAN confederation managed to convince four Aussies to join the team! Yes, Australia is a member of the ASEAN Football Confederation, but they have not been that active due to various off-field reasons and have only sent youth teams out to ASEAN tournaments. The four Aussies represented the nation includes (#24) centre-back Harrison Delbridge, who was quite good for Incheon United in the K1 League, (#18) Queens Park Rangers-bound full-back Kealey Adamson, (#19) Adelaide United attacking talent Yaya Dukuly, and, most surprisingly, (#21) 2024-25 A-League joint top-scorer & Sydney FC’s young talent Adrian Segečić?!
I will not go through Man United’s team since they have brought most of their well-known players that many of you would already know. Besides, I have not watched enough of their youth teams to give my opinion on the youngsters who played a part in the game.
The match
Note: All timestamps recorded below are match time, not the actual time when the match happened.
06:50
Only six minutes in so it might be too soon to come to any conclusions, but I already saw more positives from the All-Stars team than from Man United. Granted, Amorim’s side just came off the back of a lengthy Premier League season and a lot of these players did not want to be in Malaysia if not for commercial reasons, but you would expect to see at least a bit of quality from the travelling side. Yet for the first six minutes of the match, the All-Stars were more positive with their build-up and attacks.
The All-Stars’ decision to go with a 5-4-1 shape out of possession also helped them quite a bit. They were organised, did not attempt to press Man United and rather sat back in their mid-block to guide the English side to move the ball wide. From there, overloads were used to deny access into the final third, which worked well and gave the All-Stars many opportunities to regain possession inside of their own defensive third.
14:10
Not being bias towards a Vietnamese player, but I liked Hai Long from the first 14 minutes or so of the match. He looked quite active on and off-the-ball and had the technical ability to take on Man United’s defenders. But I felt he was slightly selfish on some of the occasions where he had the ball, and instead of looking for teammates in good positions to continue the attack, he just took on himself and made an unnecessary, wayward shot.
It is one of the traits that I slightly despise from Vietnamese attacking players. I understand that some players want to steal the spotlight and want to make an impact, but football is a team game and you win as a team. Unless you are a gifted individual or your quality is a lot better than the rest of the team, which Hai Long was not in a regional All-Stars team, pass the ball or create a goal-scoring chance for others does not hurt your chance of winning the game.
23:15
I tried not to get spoiled about the match and not have my opinions swayed, but I have heard a bit about the match being bad. I did not think the match was this bad after watching 23 minutes that I felt my decision to not watch the whole thing live was justified. The way United played really showed that they just did not want to be there in Malaysia, the players were slowed, had little confidence or willingness to move the ball forward, and a lot of their attacks just looked weak. Combining that with the players found themselves passing the ball between each other a lot of the time, and it just turned the match into a snooze fest. What’s the point of having this match anyway?
One thing that surprised me was (#9) Rasmus Højlund had a very tough time up front. He came up against (#4) South African-Cambodian centre-back Khan Mo and Aguinaldo and lost quite a few 1v1 challenges, with the Danish striker coming out on the losing end and turned the ball over, or the centre-backs would end up clearing the ball out for a corner or a throw-in.
I hoped that with the youngsters coming in at the 30th minute, the game would become livelier and opened up a bit more, now that the first-team players who did not want to be there were subbed out.
38:32
The match definitely felt slightly faster after Man United brought on four new youngsters in (#90) Daniel Armer, (#80) Jaydan Kamason, (#42) Sekou Kone, and (#72) Shea Lacey. But the English side had to compensate cohesion for more energy that the youngsters brought to the eleven on the pitch. Their attacking moves felt lack of creativity to get the ball past the All-Stars’ backline. A lot of focus was placed on getting the ball to Højlund and (#37) Kobbie Mainoo, but the All-Stars quickly shut those moves down by marking the two Man United stars even tighter.
The All-Stars also brought on two changes themselves, with (#46) Malaysian full-back Adib Abdul replacing Adamson, and Bounsong replacing Coulibaly up front. I am slightly intrigued to see what Bounsong brought to the side because he was one of two Laos’ players who I was impressed with at the ASEAN Cup earlier this year. He probably would bring a bit more pace to the frontline, if they did not have enough from Dukuly and Hai Long already, and more runs in behind Man United’s defence.
45:00 + 3’
I should not be surprised about what I saw from the first half honestly. The half felt quite similar to what I saw from Man United against Tottenham in the Europa League final last week (at the time of writing). A lot of passing the ball around at the back, a few breakthroughs here and there, but in the end, not much to show for in front of goal. They had a few shots but none of them actually did damage to Khammai’s goal, and as I said earlier, what United players showed in the first half gave me the feeling that they did not want to be playing, which is completely understandable given that they have just finished a long Premier League season with the few added matches from the domestic cups and the Europa League.
I also did not surprise that much about the quality of the ASEAN All-Stars. If this match had happened about…10 years ago, I would expect to see United dominating the half even with their tiredness due to the difference in quality. But having watched almost the entirety of the 2024 ASEAN Cup and seen the increase in quality from the domestic players, then the extra quality brought in by the dual-nationality and naturalised players, it made sense to me to see the All-Stars held United to a goalless half.
The midfield duo of Agüero and Reyes still impressed me with their technical quality and their willingness to take the game into their hands by making passes to set others into a position to progress the attack and dribbling with the ball themselves to bring the whole team forward. They were probably the brighter spots of the All-Stars’ attack with Dukuly, Coulibaly, and Hai Long failed to create anything significant. I also have to give credits to the players at the back, especially centre-backs Aguinaldo, Khan Mo, and Delbridge, who defended very well and kept both Mainoo and Højlund quiet throughout the first half.
45:00 (second half)
The second half brought a heap of changes to both sides, with centre-back Fandi, central midfielder Hoàng Đức, attacking midfielder Segečić part of the five substitutes who came on for the ASEAN All-Stars. Meanwhile, Man United’s lineup for the second half was headlined by the captain (#8) Bruno Fernandes, winger duo (#16) Amad Diallo and Alejandro Garnacho, along with the farewell match for the veteran duo (#22) Tom Heaton and (#35) Jonny Evans.
60:00
This might be the longest that I have gone without making a comment because, honestly, there was not much to comment. I was expecting to see a bit more from two completely new lineups that came on at half time and a bit more of a fight, but the game felt as slow as early in the first half with both teams kept passing the ball among each other and had little idea to move the ball forward.
I keep having to remind myself that, yes, this was a friendly, and a meaningless friendly at that, which was played right at the end of Man United’s season and just before the national team camps. Obviously the players had to be more reserved and stayed conservative to maintain their best fitness for the World Cup qualifiers, which is understandable.
70:21
Finally, a breakthrough! What a through ball by Segečić to set up (#11) Maung Maung Lwin by the way. The Sydney FC attacker attracted the attention of three Man United players and pulled them away from noticing the channel run by Lwin. Segečić’s through ball completely split Man United’s backline and set Lwin into a 1v1 situation with Heaton, which the Burmese attacker did not miss the very rare chance to score against Man United.
I actually quite like the way Kim Sang-sik used Segečić, which was slightly different to what I got to see from him at Sydney under Ufuk Talay. At Sydney, I think he was more of a second striker who played just behind Patryk Klimala/inverted winger and helped the team by getting into good goal-scoring positions, hence his joint-top goal-scoring record in the A-League Men last season. But since the Aussie came on at half time, he was used up front of a front three who also tried to make runs in behind to encourage through balls from the midfield duo Davis and Hoàng Đức. At times, however, Segečić himself would drop deep like a false nine to receive the ball, turn to face forward, allow the two attacking midfielders behind him (Lwin and Bounkong/(#7) Joao Pedro) to run forward, and use his passing to create chances like the opening goal of the match.
In a hybrid false nine/goal poacher role, I think that will get the best out of Segečić’s ability to create and convert chances. He is known to be a good playmaker, which would benefit other teammates around him as he can utilise his passing ability to create chances for others. Alongside that, he has shown throughout the 2024-25 season that he can be a lethal goalscorer by getting into good goal-scoring positions and capitalise on the chances created for him.
86:55
With that opening goal and the match winded down to its last few minutes, it made sense for the ASEAN All-Stars to drop back and defend their lead, instead of trying to push forward and chase another goal. This…actually was not the first time that Man United found themselves in a similar situation, because they had to be in the same position against Tottenham in the UEL final, and they could not find any way to break the low block down.
Here, they tried to utilise off-ball runs and disrupt the ASEAN All-Stars’ low block to create space in between the lines and in behind to try and get the ball into the box. They were successful a couple of times when Garnacho and Amad managed to run in behind, but Man United’s winger duo found themselves trying to get to a slightly overhit through ball or a pass that started slower than their off-ball run in behind, which was always going to be a struggle to prevent the ball from heading out for a goal-kick or avoid being caught offside.
Wrapping up
My expectation was low, but yeah, the match’s quality was not good. Again, I do not blame the players because this was a, more or less, meaningless friendly, and the timing of this friendly just made no sense when there is a hectic schedule coming up with most national teams will be playing over the off-season period.
However, I thought the ASEAN All-Stars held up against an average Man United side, even looked good on a few occasions. A few individual performances stood out, which I have highlighted throughout this article, and those performances were the only positive signs that came out of this match honestly.
This is meant to be a low-effort, somewhat throwaway article as I start to get back into the groove of writing stuff for this blog. It is not a good one and a low-quality one compared to the other articles that I have written. But bear with me as I have prepared a couple of fun, interesting ideas to work on that I promise that they will be a lot more fun to read. But, for now…We. Are. So. Back!