The Manchester United leadership group now has eight members

The smartest decision by Erik ten Hag this season was to render the curious power struggle at Manchester United moot.

At Brentford in August, Harry Maguire shared the pitch with a teammate who had brazenly questioned his status in a meeting with Ralf Rangnick the previous season. Maguire was powerless to cow Cristiano Ronaldo. Everybody was.

The wedge between captain and superstar had been picked up on by the matchgoers. When Ronaldo departed to a standing ovation after the final home game of last season against Brentford, one supporter turned to Maguire, sat in the directors' box, and yelled, "Show some f-----g respect."

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So rather than officially reassign the captaincy to Ronaldo or another player, Ten Hag dropped Maguire and Ronaldo after the debacle at Brentford. Better yet, it underpinned United's revival.

With Maguire and Ronaldo sat on separate rows in the home dugout, United beat Liverpool on an uproarious Monday night, still one of the highlights of their season. Ronaldo never truly regained his first-team status and has been gone for six months. Maguire still starts games on the bench and may be gone come the summer.

The timing of Ten Hag's revelation that he was consulting a leadership group was telling: six days after the watershed result at Brentford. "When the attitude is no good from the team, often the leaders are not there because they are the ones who give the example and go in front. That is a point we have to work on.

"I work always with a group of leaders, not one in particular. I spoke with the leaders about this issue. It doesn't have to be senior players but we have a core group who have to be the example and take the responsibility."