Every pre-season game – including Aston Villa (10:45 BST on Saturday) – will be shown live on MUTV, now available in our app and on ManUtd.com.

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has delivered a message to his forwards during a post-match interview with MUTV in Melbourne.

The boss saw front players Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho all find the net in the 3-1 win over Crystal Palace to continue their red-hot form on Tour 2022.

And he feels their goalscoring output is justifying the hard off-the-ball work he demands – work that he believes will continue to reap rewards in the season to come.

The manager accepts a time-honoured argument from strikers is that they need to conserve their energy for converting chances that come their way. But Ten Hag believes winning the ball higher up the pitch will naturally lead to more opportunities for the Reds.

Martial’s goal against Liverpool in our Tour 2022 opener, when he won possession and went solo to chip the ball over Alisson, was perhaps a classic example of this.

“I hope we can convince them [the forwards] as they do a lot of work,” Ten Hag explained to club media. “A lot of running.

“Often you see offensive players, they miss, that is what they think, in the offence, the energy. But you can see they put a lot of energy in defence and they get rewarded by scoring goals because we are winning balls high on the pitch.

“No opponent likes to get beat on the press, in the defending line. I think it’s a big advantage to do that, but you need the whole team.”