Jose Mourinho
Mourinho unveiled at Old Trafford on Monday Getty

KEY POINTS

  • United's first preseason game comes at the DW Stadium on 16 July.
  • Many first-team players still on holiday after Euro 2016 and Copa America duty.
  • Mourinho has consulted head of academy Nicky Butt over who is ready to step up.

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho will turn to promising youngsters Axel Tuanzebe and Tyrell Warren in his first friendly match against Wigan Athletic on 16 July.

More about Manchester United

United will take on the newly-promoted Championship side at the DW Stadium with a number of their first-team players still on holiday after Euro 2016 and Copa America campaigns.

Mourinho, who spoke to the press for the first time since his appointment at Old Trafford on Monday (6 July), has already sought advice from the club's head of academy Nicky Butt and head of football development John Murtough over which youngsters are best placed to step into his immediate first-team plans.

"The first game against Wigan is very important because I am going to have some players I don't know very well," Mourinho told MUTV. "At Wigan, I will be bringing guys like Tyrell Warren and Axel Tuanzebe.

"I don't know them well but I just trust Nicky Butt, John Murtough and the structures' judgment. Obvious I am going to work closely with them so I trust them when they say we have a few players who, in a couple of years, can be first-team players.

"I have to work with them, I have to give them the chance to work with the first-team, to know me, to feel me, to accelerate that process because that process will be in the academy but I can accelerate that process, so let's go for it. It is not important to win, it is important to know them and to give them the opportunity to work."

Tuanzebe, 18, was a surprise inclusion in Louis van Gaal's 18-man squad for a Premier League clash against Crystal Palace last November, while 17-year-old centre-half Warren was a key member of the club's Under-18 side last season, also making the step up to Warren Joyce's Under-21 ranks.

Following the Wigan game, United set off for their pre-season tour of the Far East for high-profile matches against Borussia Dortmund in Shanghai on Friday 22 July and Manchester City on Monday 25 July in Beijing.

Manchester United FC Jose Mourinho