Former Reds midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger has shared his thoughts on three of Manchester United’s summer recruits in an exclusive interview with club media.
Martinez and Antony joined us from Erik ten Hag’s former club, Ajax, while Eriksen came on a free after a short spell at Brentford following his return from playing in Serie A.
“He is South American, he has that passion!”he told us.
“But also, he is a very smart player, otherwise you can’t play that position [centre-back] with that size.
“He knows exactly what to do on the field, he likes to play with the ball, and he likes the fans, so I think that he will be one of the big strengths for the season.”
“He knows the league, but he knows the game - that is even more important.
“He has the vision, he has the brain, he knows when to pass the ball in the right moments.
The 38-year-old adds: “I really like watching him because his IQ is very high, and I love watching players who are passing the ball in the right moment to give your teammate more time to do something, and he is doing that and it is great to see.”
“I hope Antony is settling in well and can help the team more.”
But Schweinsteiger, who spent all of his career at German club Bayern Munich before joining the Reds, stressed the importance of recruiting even more top players.
“On the top level, you need not only 11 players who perform on the same level, you need like 20 players at least because it’s important also to have training sessions at a high level.
“At Munich for example, the most successful times we had when we played 11 against 11 in our training session – that was actually at a higher quality than at the Bundesliga games, or sometimes even Champions League matches.”
Look out for more from Bastian on Thursday.