Former captain Gary Neville believes the success Manchester United could enjoy between now and the end of the season rests on the form of centre-backs Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof.
The pair started alongside each other in the heart of the defence for Sunday's 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest at the City Ground, filling in for Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez, who both missed the trip to the Midlands through injury. The former is expected to be sidelined for a few weeks while Martinez is out for the remainder of the campaign after fracturing a metatarsal bone in his foot during Thursday's 2-2 draw with Sevilla at Old Trafford.
Much of United's success so far this season has been built on their much-improved defensive standards, with the partnership of Varane and Martinez proving key. They have formed an excellent partnership in the heart of the defence, positioning themselves at the top of manager Erik ten Hag's pecking order.
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Maguire and Lindelof, despite both being vastly experienced, have not played as much football as they would have liked this season, meaning pressure is on them to deliver the goods and see United through until the end of the season, although they hope to soon recover Varane as soon as possible. Nevertheless, Neville insists their contributions will be key in United's ambitions of finishing the campaign with a flourish.
Neville, speaking on his Sky Sports podcast, said: "Look, for Manchester United we can whinge a little bit, but I don't think it would go anywhere by saying that Varane and Martinez have been the best pair - they have. United will miss them.
"But a lot of clubs would be in a lot worse position. I don't know how many games Maguire and Lindelof have played together, but it is an awful lot. To have such experience to come in as your third and fourth centre-backs, I think it is a great position to be in.
"We know that other teams have been without players; [Ruben] Dias has been out this season for City; we know that [Virgil] Van Dijk's been out; we know that [Joel] Matip's out regularly and [Ibrahima] Konate [all for Liverpool]. For Arsenal at the moment, [William] Saliba is out.
"So you can't really whinge when you have spent a quarter-of-a-billion pounds to have a squad that surges. You saw today [vs Nottingham Forest] with [Scott] McTominay, [Luke] Shaw and [Marcus] Rashford out, United still ended up with a really good team. I saw the team before the game and thought it was a strong team.
"[Anthony] Martial is capable of playing at the levels of Rashford - there is no doubt about that. If he can a four or five-week period where he can excel and play at his level, and they can keep him fit, then they shouldn't see too big a drop-off. Antony and [Jadon] Sancho are £175million worth of wide players.
"In midfield, you've got [Marcel] Sabitzer who's gone off and [Christian] Eriksen has come on. Fred has also come off the bench, who is a £50m midfield player, so there is a lot of strength in depth. Casemiro is obviously very important and I think he brings a real calmness and composure.
"But for United, how they do for the rest of this season, and obviously Maguire will miss the Brighton game, will be largely down to how Maguire and Lindelof bed back in again and really settle themselves. They shouldn't have a problem with that because they have got loads of experience and have got quality."
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