COMMENT: The football's better. The coaching too. But the biggest factor in Manchester United's transformation this season is something even the most clued-in pundits are yet to highlight...
Whether it's Graeme Souness pulling apart Casemiro earlier this term, or the constant jibes from Rio Ferdinand and Roy Keane aimed at Antony... For this column it's a surprise, a real surprise, that they haven't seen the change that Erik ten Hag has driven through this United dressing room.
Football is about opinion. We all know that. So Souness can come from a credible position when pulling apart the midfield game of Casemiro. Just as Keane and Ferdinand can do the same about Antony and his pirouettes. But when they take such aim, they're missing why Ten Hag was so insistent on bringing them to Old Trafford.
And as we say, it's a surprise. It's a surprise that Souness and Keane cannot recognise the personality change of this United team. The aggression. The courage. The determination. That past passivity of United teams has gone. Casemiro. Antony. Lisandro Martinez. Wout Weghorst. Even young Alejandro Garnacho. They play with an edge. A nasty edge. And it's something we haven't seen in years from a United team.
When Keane and Ferdinand are mocking Antony for a failed spin or stepover, they're missing the point of the Brazilian. Antony - on the pitch - is an aggressive, nasty SOB. Just as Garnacho is. They're mouthy. Arrogant. And just keep coming at you. Great skill, flair, of course. It's all there. But underpinning everything is that grinta, as Ten Hag says. That mixture of grit and determination.
The same of which can be said of Casemiro. Obviously, three months on from Souness' claims of the Brazilian being overrated thanks to the players he shared a pitch with at Real Madrid... well, that's all be debunked. Indeed, where Paul Scholes now says Casemiro is the "nearest thing to Roy Keane" that he's seen in a United shirt, this column would argue the 31 year-old is ahead of the Irishman. Certainly, given his goalscoring threat this season, he is at the same age.
But again there's more to Casemiro's impact than sheer footballing performance. It's that aggression. That edge. Everything United's midfield has been lacking in recent years. Indeed, has there been a season this past decade that United's players have kicked off as many all-in brawls as this one? Again, it's that imported combativeness which has transformed this team.
Marcus Rashford. Luke Shaw. Aaron Wan-Bissaka. Even Harry Maguire. That grinta isn't in them. At least not consistently. But it doesn't have to be if there's enough nasty so-and-so's playing alongside them. It's why Lisandro and Antony stood out immediately for United fans at the end of that crazy first month of the season. It's why the support instantly took to Garnacho when he broke through. There's a difference, a huge difference, in the personalities of what has been the typical Manchester United player of the past decade and what we're seeing this season.
Nicky Butt, the former United midfielder and academy director, declared this week the 1993/94 Double winners as his favourite team. Something this column agrees with. That season, United also won the Charity Shield and were denied a Treble in the League Cup final by Ron Atkinson's Aston Villa.
What stood out about that team were the personalities. The nasty personalities. Mark Hughes. Peter Schmeichel. Paul Ince. Bryan Robson. And, of course, Keane. It was a group of players who would dominate with their ability, but also their sheer will. They were bullies. Individually, wonderful, entertaining players - sure. But as a team. They were a nasty lot that insisted upon being the pushers, rather than being pushed around.
Almost 30 years on and there's more than a trace of that Sir Alex Ferguson team in Ten Hag's lot. The Dutchman changing the personality of this squad by overhauling the team's spine.
Lisandro at centre-half. Casemiro in centre-midfield. And Weghorst at centre-forward. The Dutchman another who simply doesn't back down - just ask Lionel Messi. So Ten Hag has that core. A core to set the tone and tempo of his team's approach. And from there, that aggressive, up-and-at-'em attitude can rub off on the likes of Rashford and Bruno Fernandes. Ryan Giggs. Denis Irwin. They weren't all gobby sods in that '93/94 team. They didn't have to be. But Fergie, like Ten Hag today, had that core which would lift up everyone else.
The skill. The flair. This team, with these players, they have that. But at this stage in Manchester United's history, that was no longer enough. It needed more. The passivity had to go. To be frank, the dressing room needed a personality transplant.
And now they have it. Ten Hag has his grinta. Something this club has long been missing.
The pirouettes of Antony will continue to draw ire. But the critics are missing the bigger picture. Just like his fellow season signings, it's Antony's character which has been the greatest factor in Manchester United's transformation.
