Erik ten Hag warned Manchester United may suffer from a slow start to the season as the Red Devils attempt to get up to speed for the new campaign. (More Football News)
United face fierce rivals Manchester City in the Community Shield at Wembley Stadium on Saturday, having overcome the same opponents at the same venue in the FA Cup final back in May.
That cup victory somewhat eased the mounting pressure on under-fire Ten Hag, whose Red Devils finished eighth in the Premier League last season, their worst-ever position in the competition.
Ten Hag is expecting another difficult start against City, and then when Fulham visit Old Trafford for their league opener, with the likes of Bruno Fernandes, Alejandro Garnacho and Lisandro Martinez missing United's pre-season tour of the United States due to international commitments.
"I can see this because we didn't have time together," the United manager said ahead of the season opener at Wembley.
"We have to work on our game model to find the patterns. It was a break, they all played Euros, Copa America so they were in different teams, with different game models and different patterns.
"Now we have to bring this together. It is complicated. I am not the only one who has to deal with this problem but there are also teams with less international players, they can make a proper preseason so they are probably ahead of us.
"We have to deal with this in the coming weeks without dropping points."
Ten Hag will be without new defensive signing Leny Yoro and Rasmus Hojlund for the start of the season due to injuries.
Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw, Victor Lindelof and Aaron Wan-Bissaka are all doubtful to face Pep Guardiola's side, leaving Martinez, Jonny Evans and Diogo Dalot as United's only fit senior defenders.
Yet the Dutchman remains confident of overthrowing United's dominant neighbours once more.
"We know already we can beat City and that is not dependent on the result on Saturday that will not change that belief," he added.
"The FA Cup was a higher occasion than the game on Saturday. Nevertheless, we want to win but we showed on occasions we can beat City.
"We have that belief but we don't want to take a risk with players and lose them for long periods because that is what we have to take from last season because when you are getting in a pattern when we are missing many players with injuries from the same team unit that affects the results."
"We want to get results and for that players have to be available."
