Paul Scholes has suggested that Manchester United have improved since the start of the season because of the signing of Casemiro.
The Brazilian international, who scored his first goal for the club against Chelsea on Saturday, heading home a stoppage-time equaliser, joined United from Real Madrid for an initial fee of £60million in August. The Reds had chased Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong for more than 100 days but turned to Casemiro once they knew they were getting nowhere with their pursuit of the Dutchman.
Despite making his first few United appearances from the bench, the vastly experienced midfield ace has become a permanent fixture in Erik ten Hag's plans in recent weeks, starting each of the Reds' last seven matches, including Thursday night's Europa League clash with Sheriff Tiraspol at Old Trafford.
READ MORE: United vs Sheriff Tiraspol LIVE
He has produced a series of classy performances, contributing both offensively and defensively. With that said, former United midfielder Scholes has waxed lyrical about the wealth of quality Casemiro has brought to Old Trafford, while admitting that his forward play has caught him by surprise.
"You can see that the stats speak for themselves," Scholes told BT Sport. "The quality that he has brought to this team.
"When you look at the Real Madrid team, you always seem to think of [Luka] Modric and [Toni] Kroos and their quality, but this fella probably got overlooked in that. I think we are now seeing the real quality.
"I didn't expect him to be as good on the ball, but, obviously, he is. We have seen that again and he links the play just as well as [Christian] Eriksen does, really, with his forward passing and one-touch passing.
"I'm not sure he is going to be scoring loads of goals, but that's not what he is in the team for. I think the real step-up in quality from what we saw at the start of the season to what we're seeing now has made this team a lot better."
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