Four contenders for Manchester United's Player of the Season award

Rarely has the Manchester United Player of the Season award seen competition so scant.

It is a mark of how much United have struggled this season that there are so few candidates to win the once-coveted Sir Matt Busby award, which in 2022/23 was won by Marcus Rashford and lists legends like Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Roy Keane among its former winners.

Other end-of-season awards handed out at United include the Denzil Haroun Reserve-Team Player of the Year award (for U21 players), the Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year, the Players' Player of the Year, and the Goal of the Season prize. But it's the Sir Matt Busby award which holds the most resonance.

MEN Sport picks out the four main contenders to get the trophy at the end of this most difficult of seasons:

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If, say, in November, you had put Onana's name forward as a potential player of the season, most United fans would simply have laughed. A number of blunders in the Champions League group stage matches made it a rocky start at Old Trafford for the Cameroon international, but he's recovered in fine fashion.

In recent weeks, only Onana's brilliance between the posts has prevented further damage for United. Erik ten Hag's porous defence regularly allows more than 20 shots per game, with Onana bailing his teammates out of trouble.

His recovery has been remarkable and it means his United future – in the short to medium term – is set. Having just turned 28, Onana should have a good few years as United's No.1 if he continues like this.

While those around him have succumbed to injury or the dramatic loss of form,