Erik ten Hag praises Manchester United centre-back Victor Lindelof

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Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has praised centre-back Victor Lindelof after the Swede made his 200th appearance for the Red Devils.

After replacing Raphael Varane during the 6-3 defeat to Manchester City at the start of the month, Lindelof has started United’s last two games alongside Lisandro Martinez while the Frenchman recovered from an ankle injury.

Following the 3-2 win away to Omonia Nicosia in Cyprus last Thursday, Lindelof racked up his 200th appearance for the twenty-time league champions in Sunday’s 2-1 win against Everton at Goodison Park.

After picking up an untimely injury against Atletico Madrid in pre-season, the 28-year-old made his first Premier League start of the campaign against Frank Lampard’s Toffees.

Erik ten Hag praises Victor Lindelof

United’s number two sat alongside the former Ajax boss in yesterday’s pre-match press conference ahead of tonight’s Europa League clash against Omonia.

Despite World Cup winner Varane marking his return to action with a vital cameo on Merseyside, Lindelof will be hoping that him sitting alongside Ten Hag to carry out press conference duties means he is line to start his third consecutive game.

Ahead of tonight’s game against Neil Lennon’s Cypriot side, Ten Hag was full of praise for the ‘Iceman’ after making his 200th appearance for the club since being signed by Jose Mourinho from Benfica five years ago.

Speaking to the club’s media, Ten Hag said: “Yeah, it’s not easy to carry the shirt of Manchester United and if you wear it 200 times that tells something.

“Then you can say Victor is a really important player in the squad. He had with me a really good pre-season. I was impressed by his performances as a left centre-half. He was really disappointed he fell out [of the team] after the game at Atletico Madrid and then he had to miss the start of the season.

“But he has done really well now that he’s back. He came back and in the last two games he played from the start and [has] done very well.

So, I’m very happy with that. What it tells us is that we not only need 11 players, but we also not only need a team of 11, but we also need a squad. If you want to win something, you need a squad to achieve that.”

Lindelof, who has slotted in at centre-back seamlessly, has shown why he is the perfect squad player for Ten Hag, and judging by his comments, the former Ajax manager values the Sweden international highly.