Christian Eriksen admits he is sad to have lost Cristiano Ronaldo as a Manchester United team-mate – but excited at the prospect of Marcus Rashford leading his club forward.
Erik ten Hag’s team have begun life without their iconic superstar with comfortable wins over Burnley, in the EFL Cup, and Nottingham Forest.
United are still desperately short of strikers in their squad – and lack the money to make a January signing.
But Rashford has now scored 10 times this season and, while Eriksen claims he was disappointed at Ronaldo’s departure, he believes the United dressing room – and Rashford – have quickly moved on.
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Man Utd cannot spend their way through the post-Ronaldo era - it's time for a Rashford epoch27 December, 2022“First of all we are sad that Ronaldo is not part of it, his legacy and is name at any club is special, for me to be fortunate to play with him in my career was very nice,” said Eriksen.
“The football goes on. You feel that the next game after, people will forget what it was like before and now our focus is really like he is not here.
“Marcus played very well, and luckily I haven’t been on the pitch where he has played a bad game yet.
“I let him continue that, he is looking sharp and confident, and you can feel that when he is going forward.
“You feel that in the stadium, and you feel that with him, and it is a nice thing and I hope he keeps it going.”
Rashford has openly discussed his improved form this season and the stark contrast with the last campaign, when he was one of many United stars whose performances dipped alarmingly.
And, after being recalled by Gareth Southgate, his three goals in England’s World Cup campaign indicated a player whose form is clearly on the rise.
“You can see that he came back pretty confident,” said Eriksen.
“I didn’t see as much of his games of course, you guys will have seen more, but he came back in good shape and luckily he has taken that into United.
“The atmosphere in the squad is good. We have a lot of people coming back from the World Cup, the last guys are coming back and everyone is coming together.
“It helps winning games and also before we went away for the World Cup we had a few good games and good wins and it makes it easier to come back and start like this.
“We are in a good place, the start of the season is very different compared to now, the football is different now to the beginning.
“It was a bit hit-and-miss in some games but I think after that we picked up, we have been building since.
“You feel that in the group, you feel that the system is working which is something you have to believe in and I think we are doing that.”
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