It wasn’t brilliant from Manchester United, but it was a win, it was better than the 1-0 win over Wolves with which they started last season and, perhaps most significantly, it was a victory achieved with a late goal from one of their new signings. And those are the ingredients for optimism.

It’s true that if Joshua Zirkzee had not steered in an Alejandro Garnacho cross with three minutes remaining, the mood would have been very different. But then the whole tenor of the game would have been very different had Bruno Fernandes converted either of his one-on-one opportunities against Bernd Leno before half-time. Games, seasons and careers are decided by fine margins and, on this occasion, they went for United.

Related: Joshua Zirkzee scores on debut to give Manchester United scrappy first win

It was particularly gratifying for United that it was Zirkzee, bought from Bologna for £36m, who got the decisive goal. He had been a bustlingly brusque presence since coming off the bench after 61 minutes, and had been involved in the buildup to the goal, offering an outlet then continuing his run into the box to score on his debut. United managed only 57 league goals last season and for much of this game there was little reason to think that return would be improving much this campaign. Zirkzee was not prolific in Serie A but, even before his cute finish, his physique, his willingness to look for the ball and his capacity to link the play gave United a greater threat.

But it could easily have been very different. For all the warm applause for the four new signings as they were presented before kick-off, new-season optimism stoked by the improbable FA Cup victory in May, Old Trafford remains an uneasy place. Moves to trim around 250 of the club’s 1,000 staff have added to the mood of uncertainty, not helped by other aspects of the Jim Ratcliffe revolution. He has tried to put an end to staff working from home, only for it to become apparent that there is insufficient space for them all to come in. Two suites that have been repurposed as offices returned to hospitality for the game, meaning staff based there being told to stay away from Thursday to Monday.

The Glazers were notable for their invisibility, almost never speaking publicly about the club. Ratcliffe, by contrast, keeps giving interviews, in which he tends to sound less like the visionary who will lead United to glory than a grumpy boomer in his disdain for home working and the sense he gives that the women’s team is a burden (“the men’s team makes £800million, the women’s team costs £10m”). His appeals for public funding for “a Wembley of the North”, meanwhile, would sound like deluded special pleading even if it weren’t for the hypocrisy of a tax exile expecting taxpayers to pay for a stadium for his club.

Those hoping for a radical upturn on the pitch will perhaps be disappointed. Erik ten Hag had been forced to clarify comments he had made about United not being ready for the new season but that had just been the truth: almost nobody is ever ready for the start of the season, especially after a summer in which there has been a major tournament.

The signings of Noussair Mazraoui and Matthijs de Ligt were confirmed only on Tuesday and both are surely vital to how United perform this season. In that context, Ten Hag’s plea for patience earlier this week was entirely reasonable. Perhaps the former Ajax pair could have been brought in earlier, but plenty of other clubs find themselves in similar situations, partly because of signings and partly because those who played in the latter stages of the Euros have returned to training in the past few days.

Their arrivals at least allowed Ten Hag to field a back four that looked balanced, the Morocco international taking over at right-back.

De Ligt, after an extremely limited pre-season with Bayern, was named on the bench and came on with nine minutes remaining. Mazraoui, without having a huge amount to do defensively beyond one early interception, looked confident enough, certainly more prepared to push on than Aaron Wan-Bissaka had been but, understandably enough, there was little evidence yet of a link up with Amad Diallo.

On the other hand, United really didn’t look ready, and that despite the Community Shield. Fulham also included one new signing in their starting lineup, Emile Smith Rowe, who, dropping deep, found space far more regularly than United would have liked; the gaps in midfield have not gone away.

There was some evidence of United’s press causing problems for Fulham but for a long time this remained a scratchy, anxious occasion. That Casemiro’s cheeks are looking a little more concave than last season will not be enough to sustain United hopes for long.

The late goal could not entirely dispel memories of an often disjointed display. Greater cohesion is likely as new arrivals settle, but fundamentally this was a performance to confirm pre-existing opinions: there were enough glimmers to give the sanguine reason to remain hopeful, but also enough that was scruffy to make doubters fear the worst.