Fantasy United: One week to go!
It’s exactly seven days until Manchester United open the new Premier League season at home to Fulham.
The Reds’ Old Trafford meeting with the Cottagers kicks off our 2024/25 top-flight campaign and is also the first time that you can use your digital Player Trading Cards – featuring every member of Erik ten Hag’s squad – in our brand-new Fantasy United game.
Have you started your collection? If you have, your assembled cards can now be picked in a five-man line-up, which will score points based on the real-life actions of your chosen Reds in all men's competitive matches this season, starting against Fulham. If you haven’t, be sure to get involved at manutd.com/playercards before the fixture on Friday 16 August!
You can play against, and compare your progress to, fellow United supporters via the global points ranking, or you can pursue domination of the mini-league leaderboard by challenging friends.
If you are looking to gain the edge on your rivals ahead of the new season, you may be keeping a particularly close eye on this weekend’s FA Community Shield, while cheering on United against Manchester City in English football's annual curtain-raiser.
Points will not be officially registered in Saturday’s 15:00 BST kick-off at Wembley Stadium, with the first Fantasy United matchday not until the Fulham game, but our Reds’ performances may be a factor in your thinking for your inaugural line-up.
You can pick it now at manutd.com/fantasy before next Friday’s big kick-off and, just for fun in the meantime, we challenged former Reds striker Andy Cole and fantasy football content creator FPL Raptor to select a team for this weekend’s clash with City. Here’s what they opted for, in our latest Expert vs Legend head-to-head…
COLEY'S TEAM
Line-up: Onana, Martinez, Mainoo, Rashford (Rare), Fernandes (Ultra-Rare).
Lisandro Martinez, Bruno Fernandes and Kobbie Mainoo didn't take part in United's pre-season matches, as they enjoyed a break following their international commitments earlier in the summer, but the trio are among the recent bands of Reds to have returned to training, and Coley is expecting them to hit the ground running at Wembley.
He's backing the trio to deliver points alongside Andre Onana and Marcus Rashford, who have been building up their sharpness over recent weeks, with three and four appearances in our pre-season respectively. Rashford's returns will be doubled for Coley as his Rare selection, while Fernandes will bag triple points as an Ultra-Rare choice.
RAPTOR'S TEAM
Line-up: Dalot, Mainoo, Amad, Fernandes (Rare), Rashford (Ultra-Rare).
FPL Raptor was the triumphant manager in our first and only previous Expert vs Legend showdown, with his team just topping that scored by Bryan Robson's in the 2-0 friendly win over Rangers last month, and he'll be hoping for more success this weekend ahead of Fantasy United's first matchday.
Raptor also has Fernandes and Rashford as his rarities with responsibility, although it's the latter's contributions that will be worth more for him. The five-man team also features Mainoo, fellow recent returnee to training Diogo Dalot and in-form forward Amad. Game on!
Who will score the most points? Have your say by voting in the poll at the bottom of this article...
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