Inside story from second week of training

After a lot of testing in the first days back, there was renewed focus and determination as we took advantage of a privileged position on the touchlines, while the squad went through their paces in front of Ruben Amorim and his coaching staff.

Adaptation must have been a key consideration and it would appear this has gone very smoothly. Matheus Cunha looks very much at home, being on the end of some light-hearted banter at the end of the session, and Diego Leon impressed in a new and demanding environment, even more so considering he is only 18 years old.

Bendito Mantato and Chido Obi are younger than the Paraguayan and will be keen to maintain their own progress.

We await the release of our squad for the Leeds United friendly on Saturday. The Stockholm fixture is live on MUTV and represents a chance for fans to get a first look at the side, as the plans continue to take shape.

Obi scored a couple of goals in the post-season tour and, despite his youth, towers over most of his team-mates, clearly maturing into having the sort of physique that should be able to cope with the demands of top-flight football, as he matures.

Another of our young forwards, Ethan Williams, was part of the squad on show, following his successful loan spell at Cheltenham Town last term.

The teenager paired up with skipper Bruno Fernandes for the first drill. This involved using a speed resistor sprint harness, with one player pulling it and the other stretching to get away with it tied around their waist. With the aim of building strength, once the first step was completed, the individual would sprint to a marker and return to swap places.

The coaches oversaw it all, offering encouragement and ensuring sustained maximum effort, before some more sprints ahead of the first ball work got under way.

On one pitch, two sets of five were pitted against other, one defending the other attacking by probing for an opening. Three centre-backs and two wing-backs made up the sides, with a goalkeeper trying to prevent any shots entering the net. If the defending side gained possession, they could aim for small goals off the playing area, which provided an interesting subplot.

Matthijs de Ligt slammed in the first goal with a finish any striker would be proud of, even if the main focus was probably the probing for openings and patterns needed to create any opportunities.

The adjacent pitch featured a shooting session, with a player getting passes from one end to fire on goal and then turning to do likewise at the other. Sekou Kone produced one exquisite strike with the outside of his foot and Rasmus Hojlund was all smiles after two sweet finishes in quick succession brought some admiring comments from his colleagues.

Amorim ended this segment with a short blast of his whistle and the group moved onto the space outside the Jimmy Murphy Centre. Small goals were situated on all four corners of the pitch and speed was very much of the essence, a point made clear by the coaches before the drill started.

It was a noisy, head-spinning environment with the coaches shouting advice and encouragement and the ball being whizzed around at a dizzying rate. Despite the intensity, it was played in good heart as the challenge evolved to finding the tiny targets.

Our head coach seemed pleased at the end, applauding the efforts, and we finished with a round-robin tournament rather than the full-scale 11-a-side match of last week.

Names were read out and the squad was divided into four teams for contests played out with full-size goals but on a much shorter pitch. It is obvious how competitive this would get and the goals started flying in after Obi bagged the first in the game closest to me. On the other one, I saw Radek Vitek fly through the air to make a spectacular save, but it was easy to have a little sympathy for the keepers as the shots kept raining in, from all angles.

Ruben was studiously keeping tabs on both games as they ran concurrently, before the teams would switch and the competition began to heat up.

De Ligt showed his leadership qualities and also another belting finish he enjoyed, making a point of praising Vitek for one pass straight out to Jack Fletcher, who supplied the finish with a level of composure he displayed throughout. Fletcher was wearing the no.38 on his training kit, albeit under his bib, as he is moving from no.57. I understand there are more changes for us to still confirm in due course.

For the record, the yellows won the competition and Dermot Mee, Fernandes, Noussair Mazraoui, Ayden Heaven, Williams and Obi posed for a victorious photograph snapped by Ash Donelon to celebrate their success, before making their way back to the changing rooms.

Ruben said "thank you" to the players for their endeavour before returning to the main building, knowing this was another valuable session in the build-up to the campaign and with the temperatures much lower than the sweltering conditions for the first week of work.

You can sense the anticipation building and the mood seems very positive, with the players looking forward to a first piece of action at the weekend.

The opinions in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Manchester United Football Club.