Erik ten Hag has been given £12.8m Manchester United dilemma he might not have expected

On paper, Noussair Mazraoui was arguably the most unattractive of Manchester United's five summer signings.

However, on the pitch, he has been their most attractive thus far. The £12.8million recruit from Bayern Munich produced another accomplished display on Saturday, helping United beat Southampton 3-0 at St Mary's.

With the exception of the 3-0 defeat to Liverpool prior to the international break, in which every United player failed to turn up, the Moroccan international has not put a foot wrong thus far. At £12.8m, he is already looking as though he could prove to be a bit of a bargain.

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Deployed at right-back for the fourth game running on Saturday, Mazraoui, who previously worked with Erik ten Hag at Ajax, produced a solid account of himself. As well as being defensively sound, he also displayed signs of being confident enough to venture into attacking positions.

It was his quality with the ball, though, that was the most striking component of his performance, up until being forced with 74 minutes played with what Ten Hag suspected might have been cramp. He completed 86 per cent of his attempted passes, 100 per cent of his long balls and 100 per cent of his take-ons.

His effectiveness with the ball is already making it easy to understand why Ten Hag wanted to be reunited with him in M16. He is capable of progressing the ball, making forward runs and linking up with Amad, who was stationed ahead of him on the right.

He was also strong in his challenges, winning more than half of his ground duels. Defensively he was very astute.

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