Six Manchester United players are ‘thriving’ without Cristiano Ronaldo

Christian Eriksen, Bruno Fernandes, Scott McTominay, Antony, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford are all benefitting from a lack of Cristiano Ronaldo in the starting XI.

That's according to Gabriel Agbonlahor, who believes Manchester United are a good bet to finish in the top four this season going off their recent form. Erik ten Hag couldn't have feared a worse start to his reign in charge at Old Trafford as his first two matches resulted in defeats to Brighton and Brentford.

Ronaldo started in the 4-0 hammering in London but hasn't done so in the four league games since, which has seen United turn things around. They have picked up four successive victories - including wins over Liverpool and Arsenal - and Agbonglahor believes that dropping Ronaldo is a big reason for the uplift in results.

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“Man United look a lot better now, they look more organised and like they have a better team spirit,” he told Football Insider. "Everyone was calling for Man United to drop Ronaldo and play players who want to press and they are reaping the benefits.

"You look at [Christian] Eriksen and [Bruno] Fernandes in the middle creating and [Scott] McTominay’s looking good. Antony looks like a great signing. [Jadon] Sancho is starting to want to take players on and Rashford is looking like we want to see and thought we had.

“This amazing Rashford is a guarantee for the World Cup with the way he’s playing. It’s looking better at Man United. What it has done as well has probably forced [Todd] Boehly’s hand at Chelsea to think ‘If I don’t change this soon we might not make the top-four’.

“There are at least six teams fighting for the top four. There is no reason why Chelsea are guaranteed to get it