Manchester United hit four past Burton in a dominant performance at Old Trafford which was too much for a much-changed Burton side to handle. Jose Mourinho started with a strong lineup despite a few notable absentees such as David de Gea, Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku. Visiting manager Nigel Clough also used this game to give his fringe players an opportunity, making nine changes from their last Championship game.
Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial started up front together and caused the visitors all sorts of problems from the first whistle. It took just five minutes for the young England international to open the scoring following a probing pass by Michael Carrick that came to Jesse Lingard before falling nicely to Rashford who lifted it over the oncoming goalkeeper.
Rashford clearly had his shooting boots on as just a few minutes later he had his second. He created space for himself with a lovely turn on the edge of the box before unleashing a vicious shot which beat Connor Ripley in the away goal.
Burton did show glimpses and certainly did not disgrace themselves. Joe Mason had a great chance one-on-one with Sergio Romero but could only scoop the ball against the Argentine's chest when really he should have scored.It was curtains for Burton just minutes later when Jesse Lingard added a third goal.
It was a cruel deflection that beat the Burton goalkeeper but there was excellent work from Anthony Martial in the build-up as he shown some excellent trickery to make some space in the final third.
Halftime brought some relief for the visitors but the flow of the game was the same after the interval. Luke Shaw came on for his first appearance since April and had a goal disallowed after breaking into a good are. Jose Mourinho employed a possession-based game that allowed them to pin back the opposition and dominate in the key areas, allowing his full-backs to exploit the space in behind the Burton back line.
It was the front two who linked up once again for the fourth goal as Rashford turned provider to feed Martial who finished with ease. This was certainly a performance you would expect from Manchester United against a lower league side but the fringe players impressed and Marcus Rashford was the star of the show.
Lloyd Dyer bagged a deserved consolation goal for the visitors after some shocking goalkeeping by Joel Castro Pereira who failed to claim a cross.
It is certainly not a bad way for the hosts to start their defence of the League Cup.
