Luke Shaw believes Manchester United will have the upper hand on many of their Premier League rivals because they've already experienced playing behind closed doors.
United's final game before the lockdown was in Linz, Austria, where they hammered LASK 5-0 in a Europa League last 16 first leg - a game played without a crowd due to the coronavirus pandemic.
That game will be more than three months ago by the time United retake to the field. But Shaw believes United have had a 'trial run' and will feel the benefit of the experience of playing without fans, with all Premier League games to be played behind closed doors upon resumption.
Shaw told United's website: "The last time we played an actual competitive game was against LASK in Austria, when obviously there were no supporters in the ground, and I suppose that was sort of a trial run for how things will be here when we get back to playing in the Premier League.
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"For me, fans are first and foremost; the atmosphere they make is what football is all about and we’re definitely going to miss having them at our games, both at a packed Old Trafford and the amazing away support that follows us everywhere.
"We love our fans and we’ll miss them, but it’s far more important that we don’t bring them back too early in the current climate.
"We’ll have to create our own atmosphere on the pitch through the people we’ve got on the sidelines, and it’s useful that we’ve got a couple of weeks now to get it into our heads that it’s going to be so different to what we’re used to.
"We need to be ready for it. We’ve had that taste of it already against LASK and we can use that to our advantage."
With United's players now back in full contact training under the watchful eye of manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Shaw revealed more match-specific drills are coming into play.
He added: "We’ve been doing a bit more tactical work to get our principles in for what the manager wants. The lads are engaging in that well and understanding more and more what the gaffer wants. We’ve got a good couple of weeks now to work on what we’re going to be doing as a team."
