📅 August 14, 2026
United v Milan: Amorim’s Back Three Against Carrick’s Front Four, and Both Likely Elevens
Manchester United finish pre-season against AC Milan in Wroclaw on Saturday, and the two managers arrive from opposite directions. One has spent the summer proving a rebuild is working. The other has spent it discovering that his system does not install itself.
Here is where both sides actually stand, and what the team sheets should look like.
The pre-season records tell most of the story
United, under Michael Carrick, have played five:
- Wrexham, Helsinki, lost 1-0
- Rosenborg, Trondheim, won 5-0
- Atletico Madrid, Stockholm, won 2-1
- Paris Saint-Germain, Gothenburg, drew 1-1
- Leeds United, Croke Park, drew 1-1, won 5-4 on penalties
Two wins, two draws, one defeat, and the defeat came in the first match of the summer before anybody was fit. Holding the European champions and beating Atletico is the part that matters.
Milan, under Ruben Amorim, have played three:
- Celtic, drew 2-2
- Inter, in Australia, drew 1-1
- Chelsea, in Jakarta, lost 3-0
No wins. Saturday is their last chance to get one before the season starts, which is the single most important thing to understand about how they will approach this game. Milan need a performance far more than United do.
Amorim is still playing the system
He has not changed. Milan are being built around the same 3-4-2-1 he used at Sporting and refused to abandon at Old Trafford, with a 3-4-3 as the variant.
The principles are unchanged too. Three centre-backs who can pass, and specifically a middle centre-back asked to step into midfield to start attacks. Two wing-backs who provide the entire width of the team. Two number tens between the lines behind a lone striker.
It is a demanding, precise system, and it is the reason his recruitment reads coherently: Mario Gila from Lazio is a centre-back signed for his passing range, and Goncalo Ramos from PSG is a direct focal point for the front. It is also the reason the exits list is what it is. After the Chelsea defeat, Milan reportedly put Pervis Estupinan, Fikayo Tomori, Youssouf Fofana, Samuele Ricci, Zachary Athekame and Santiago Gimenez up for sale. That is not panic, it is a squad being sorted into players who fit the shape and players who do not.
United supporters will recognise all of this, because we watched it for fourteen months. The system is not the problem. Installing it inside one pre-season is.
Milan’s likely eleven
Their team against Chelsea lined up like this, and it is the best guide we have:
Milan (3-4-2-1): Torriani; Terracciano, De Winter, Pavlovic; Chukwueze, Modric, Comotto, Estupinan; Loftus-Cheek, Leao; Camarda.
Expect something close, with Gila likely coming into the back three and Ramos an option through the middle. Luka Modric sitting in a two-man midfield at his age is the detail that jumps out, and Rafael Leao operating as one of the tens rather than a left winger is the clearest sign of how Amorim wants to use him.
The obvious question is the same one that followed him around Manchester. A back three plus two wing-backs only works if the wing-backs are fit enough and disciplined enough to do two jobs. Estupinan is on the sale list and playing there anyway.
United’s likely eleven
Carrick has a different problem, which is a nice problem. He rested his senior spine at Croke Park and now has almost everyone available.
Marcus Rashford, Lisandro Martinez and Kobbie Mainoo all returned to training this week and Carrick confirmed they are available for the weekend. Manuel Ugarte is out until spring with the ACL injury from the World Cup. Mason Mount remains a doubt after the foot problem against PSG. Benjamin Sesko, Matthijs de Ligt and Karl Darlow are all still working back.
Our expected 4-2-3-1: Lammens; Dalot, Yoro, Maguire, Shaw; Santos, Tielemans; Amad, Fernandes, Dorgu; Mbeumo.
Three selection calls worth watching:
Do Santos and Tielemans finally start together? They have now gone three matches without sharing a pitch. Against PSG, Tielemans replaced Santos. At Croke Park, Santos came off at half-time and Tielemans came on at 61. This is the last opportunity to see the eighty five million pound midfield actually function as a pair before Hull City. If Carrick does not do it here, he is choosing to find out for real on 22 August.
Where does Rashford come in? Almost certainly from the bench, and almost certainly on the left. He has been training three days. Thirty minutes against a side he has every reason to want to beat is the sensible use of him.
Does Martinez come straight back into the back four? He is the left-footed centre-back the pairing wants, but he has been back the same three days as the other two. Maguire and Yoro started the summer as the pairing and neither has done much wrong.
The tactical match-up
This is the interesting bit: Amorim’s back three against Carrick’s front four.
A 3-4-2-1 defends the middle of the pitch extremely well. Three centre-backs and two central midfielders make it awkward to play through, which is precisely why Amorim likes it. What it concedes is the space either side of the wing-backs, particularly when they have pushed high.
United are set up to attack exactly that. Amad on the right and Dorgu on the left, with Dalot and Shaw overlapping behind them, gives four players attacking the two channels Milan’s shape leaves open. Carrick already showed the pattern against PSG, letting Shaw overlap while Dorgu tucked inside as an inverted winger.
And if Rashford arrives in the second half against a tiring right wing-back, that is the single most dangerous thing United can do to this Milan side.
Going the other way, Milan’s threat is Leao running at Dalot from an inside position, and the two tens finding space between United’s midfield two and the back four. That gap is exactly where Mason Mount would normally be doing the screening work, and Mount is a doubt.
What we expect
Milan want a win badly enough that they may treat this more seriously than United do. Carrick has one eye on Hull City in a week and will manage minutes carefully, probably making wholesale changes around the hour.
But United are the fitter, more settled and more coherent side right now, and Milan have conceded seven goals in three matches while learning a new system. We would take United, narrowly, with the caveat that pre-season scorelines are the least meaningful thing about pre-season.
Kick-off is 16:45 in Wroclaw, 10:45am Eastern, at the Tarczynski Arena.
More on the reunion in our piece on Amorim facing his old club, and on what Carrick said about Rashford. Full fixture list with ET kick-off times on our Fixtures page.