The reasons for Manchester United’s alarming slump in the final seven weeks of last season following Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s appointment as permanent manager are still being ferociously argued by the club’s fanbase. It is a debate that will only intensify if United pick up where they left off last term and start the new campaign badly. And yet, for all the questions that are being asked about a squad that has not undergone the change many fans expected, and for all the concerns expressed about Solskjaer’s credentials, transfers, the board and owners, it has been hard to detect any of that pessimism on this summer’s pre-season tour of Australia and Asia.

If anything, the mood has been buoyant, a far cry from last summer’s toxic trip to the US, when Jose Mourinho took a wrecking ball to everything in his sights and United’s season was in dire trouble before it had even begun. It is more than seven months now since Mourinho vacated the building but it has been interesting to gauge the feeling here that United fell away so badly towards the end of last season - and suffered so many injuries - in part because the team was simply not fit enough to maintain the increase in intensity demanded by Solskjaer.