Michael Carrick has already seen enough of new signings
Michael Owen and Antonio Valencia to be confident they'll succeed
in a United shirt.
Owen has impressed in
pre-season, netting four goals in five outings on tour in Asia and
Germany, and looking at home whether alongside Wayne Rooney,
Dimitar Berbatov or Federico Macheda in attack.
Valencia didn't travel to the
Far East but the winger hit the ground running in Munich last week
with a
goalscoring debut against Boca
Juniors followed by a quicksilver cameo against Bayern in the
final.
"Michael’s already done really well," Carrick told
United Review.
"He’s a top player and I’m sure he’ll score lots of goals for
us.
"Antonio joined us a little later for training so I’ve only seen
a bit of him so far, but he's already shown what great
qualities he has and I’m sure he’ll be a huge success."
After four largely straightforward friendly wins in Asia, United
enjoyed decent workouts against Boca and Bayern in the Audi Cup,
and
Carrick
expects Wednesday's game against Valencia to provide a
similar test of the Reds' new season credentials.
The midfielder continued: "It will allow us to gauge where we’re
at and look at the things that need tweaking or working on and
there’s no better place to do that than Old Trafford.
"Valencia are a top side and I’m sure it’ll be an entertaining
match."