Christian Eriksen insists football quickly moves on as Man Utd began life in the Premier League after Cristiano Ronaldo with a 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest.
Ronaldo’s demise at Old Trafford dominated the news agenda for several weeks following his refusal to come on as a substitute against Tottenham and his explosive TalkTV interview.
His exit was agreed during the World Cup break and Man Utd have quickly moved on, showing plenty of life in attack as they put Forest to the sword on Tuesday.
Marcus Rashford’s rich vein of form continued as he scored the opener and then made the second for Anthony Martial, with Fred’s late goal putting the gloss on the win which saw Man Utd close the gap on the top four.
Eriksen was proud to play with Ronaldo, but knows life moves on and said the mood in the camp is good.
“First of all we are sad that Ronaldo is not part of it, his legacy and his name at any club is special, for me to be fortunate to play with him in my career was very nice,” he said.
“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.
“The atmosphere 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.
“The atmosphere is good. 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.”
Rashford’s form, with eight goals in 13 games for club and country, is a real tonic following Ronaldo’s exit.
Eriksen says the 25-year-old has returned from the World Cup with confidence and hopes he can continue firing for Man Utd.
“He played very well, luckily I haven’t been on the pitch where he has played a bad game yet,” he said.
“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.
“You can see that he came back pretty confident. 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.”
Lisandro Martinez returns to Man Utd after heeding Erik ten Hag’s blunt warning
Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez, who won the World Cup with Argentina earlier this month, has returned to the club after celebrating La Albiceleste’s triumph in Buenos Aires
Lisandro Martinez has returned to Manchester United – less than a week after Erik ten Hag warned the defender that he expected him back at Old Trafford following his World Cup triumph.
Martinez, 24, was part of the Argentina squad that dethroned France in the World Cup final just under two weeks ago in a dramatic penalty shootout and has been celebrating in his homeland ever since.
But the former Ajax man has now returned to Manchester – and it has emerged that Martinez decided to skip the wedding of close friend and international teammate Nicolas Tagliafico, which took place in Argentina, in order to return to Manchester earlier this week in a bid to make himself available for the club’s stacked festive fixture list.
That’s according to The Daily Mail, who report that Martinez is hopeful of featuring when United travel to Wolves on New Years Eve.
Martinez’ return comes just a few days after Ten Hag hinted that the centre-back would have to cease his celebrations in order to focus on the remainder of the Premier League campaign.
The Dutchman said last week: “[Martinez] has been celebrating in Buenos Aires and I can understand that. It’s the highest you can achieve. But also, Lisandro Martinez has to accept that on the 27th the Premier League will go on.”
Martinez has made a significant impact at Old Trafford since his £55million summer switch from Ajax. Despite initial concerns over his height, Martinez has firmly established himself as one of United’s first-choice defenders at the expense of club captain Harry Maguire and has played a key role in their rise up the table before the World Cup break.
It remains to be seen when Martinez will return to the fold after flying back to Manchester from Argentina; however, Ten Hag could accelerate plans after Maguire and Victor Lindelof were absent from the starting XI that ran out 3-0 winners against Nottingham Forest on Tuesday night with a virus. Maguire did feature as a substitute late on.
Raphael Varane, who also played in the final for France but had a shorter trip back than Martinez, did step up to make an earlier than anticipated return alongside Luke Shaw, who deputised as a left-sided centre-back.
Unsurprisingly, Ten Hag was full of praise for Varane after the match. He said: “Rapha, I think, he shows once again his great personality, the great standards he is giving Manchester United by coming from the World Cup. We had a problem in the centre-half position and he is taking responsibility to play and he performed really well. He was, once again, very important for our team.”
SOURCE: football365.com, mirror.co.uk
