Raphael Varane explains how he has become a better player at Manchester United

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Raphael Varane has explained how his game has improved since he left Real Madrid for Manchester United.

The four-times Champions League winner and 2018 World Cup winner has seen it all, and won his first trophy for Manchester United earlier this season.

Now he is keen to win a second, with the FA Cup final seeing United square off against the City side managed by his old nemesis Pep Guardiola, who managed Barcelona when he signed for Real Madrid back in 2011.

What Raphael Varane, 30, now lacks in youth, he makes up in experience, and he says he has changed his game in recent years.

READ: Confirmed Manchester United transfers in, out, loans, releases, youth for 2023/24

Raphael Varane on his changing style

Raphael Varane has told The Telegraph that he has become wiser as a player and more reliant on his reading of the game, less on his speed and physicality.

He explained: “I think I can read the game better now and anticipate actions much more. I am sprinting less on the pitch. I am much more in a good position.

“The evolution of my game is interesting. I make less tackles and less sprints so that means I am using the positioning very well. That’s one of my strengths now.”

Varane has have a longer career this way too if he avoids relying on moments of contact to win the ball back.

It is a style once perfected by Rio Ferdinand, who could go the entire game without needing to win a tackle, because he was always first to the ball.

Alongside a defender who actively seeks out physicality, Lisandro Martinez, the pair have forged a tremendous partnership reminiscent of the old Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic pairing which once dominated games for Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson.

Martinez will miss the FA Cup final through injury, with Varane expected to partner Victor Lindelof, or Luke Shaw, at Wembley.

Varane’s experience for the big game will be essential. He has been through battles at Real Madrid, and come out on top. These are the kind of games Manchester United signed him for.