Collyer thirsty for more first-team opportunities
Aspiring young United midfielder Toby Collyer continued his quietly impressive pre-season campaign this weekend, during 45 industrious minutes against Arsenal in Los Angeles.
The 20-year-old was a second-half substitute in our first game of 2024/25, against Rosenborg, and earned a starting place in the XI that began our 2-0 victory over Rangers in Edinburgh.
Collyer also began the opening match of Tour 2024, presented by Snapdragon, when we met the Gunners at SoFi Stadium in the early hours of Sunday morning. Again, he shone, acquitting himself admirably against Martin Odegaard and co.
After the final whistle, the southerner was full of enthusiasm when interviewed by club media's Sam Carney, and talked about his thirst for the chances that pre-season offers to ambitious young players.
Collyer: It's a great experience Video
Collyer: It's a great experience
Toby Collyer values the opportunity to play for United on our pre-season tour...
"It's really, really, really valuable," he said, of his first experience of an overseas tour with the first team.
"I think that's what everyone wants to do. Everyone wants to be able to play in the first team. So I think getting experiences like this in a stadium like this as well, it's the top level, and obviously the opposition [was top level] as well today.
"So I'm taking everything step by step and hopefully I'll get many more opportunities to show what I can do."
The midfielder, who joined from Brighton in 2022, was also keen to pay tribute to his on-field partner in LA, Casemiro.
"It's so valuable [to play next to him]," admitted Toby.
"He's one of the best ever in that position, so it's great for someone like myself to learn off him, even just to watch him in training and have him next to me, always talking to me and helping me out, as well as the other lads as well. He's a real leader in the team."
Full 90: Arsenal v United Video
Full 90: Arsenal v United
Full 90 | Watch every second - and the penalty shootout - from our pre-season meeting with the Gunners...
Collyer was modest about his own individual performance in Inglewood, where the Reds were beaten 2-1 by Arsenal, but said he was generally encouraged by United's performance, given we're just a few weeks into pre-season.
"It was a tough game, but I thought we did well as a team," he explained. "We did some good things, and [there are] some things to improve, but I thought we had the right attitude and we tried to do the best with what the manager was telling us to do.
"Was I pleased with how I played? Yeah, I thought I had an okay game. I thought there was a lot of things I could have done better, but it's great to experience a game like today and I can take it into the next game, and even into training tomorrow."
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United are next in action on Thursday, when we take on Real Betis in San Diego for the second game of Tour 2024, presented by Snapdragon.
Subscribers can watch that fixture and our final game of the tour – a rendezvous with Liverpool in South Carolina next Sunday – on MUTV.
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