Wes Brown reveals all: Inside Man Utd - Rashford's benching, De Ligt's impact & Lisandro's brutal tackle - Exclusive with Jacob Hansen

"I believe Rashford must have felt a bit let down. His recent performances have been top-notch, and he even managed to score. So, it's only natural to feel disappointed when you're not included in the lineup," the former Man United defender expressed to Tribalfootball on behalf of Instant Casinos.

“I will say, though, (Alejandro) Garnacho has played well too, so there are three players that are fighting for positions. You want Rashford scoring, but ultimately, he knows that the other two lads are playing well. The most surprising thing for me has been Amad Diallo's form this season. Last season he was playing more as a sub coming on for the latter stages, but now the manager has found it hard to keep him out,”  Brown continues.

At the other end of the pitch two new signings have been getting a lot of minutes already and Brown, who racked up 232 appearances for Man United himself, believes an improvement is already visible in Matthijs de Ligt.

“He's been getting better. It was always going to be hard to get straight in, but in the last couple of games you can see he's really getting into the flow of things. He's aggressive, he likes to get involved, he's strong, quick; I think he's going to be a massive asset for us this season,” says Brown who is hoping the Dutchman can form a backbone in defence alongside Lisandro Martinez.

“He's been at massive clubs already and for whatever reason, it's just not quite worked. But hopefully, with the experience he has now, he and Martinez can be a great combination and really assure our defence a bit. That's what we've missed for quite a while, especially two players staying fit as well.”

I did worse tackles

Speaking of the diminutive Argentinian; he was probably fortunate not to get sent off at Selhurst Park Saturday night, or what?

“Yeah, you can't do that, can you? In my day, you could probably get away with a little bit more. But you're very lucky not to get sent off if you do tackle like that. But; you live and learn, it's football, there is the adrenaline and you do some silly things sometimes. I've been sent off a few times, probably for worse tackles than that,” the former United defender chuckles before having a look at another newcomer in the Uniteddefence.

"(Nasser) Mazraoui is probably the one who's been the most settled of them all. When Luke Shaw comes back it’s probably still him and (Diogo) Dalot for me, but Mazraoui has certainly stood up for himself and let the manager know that he's more than capable of playing there.

“You can always improve, but in general he's actually done fine. He could get down the line more and get some crosses in, but his positional play has been OK, he's defended well, and sometimes you just need those sorts of games to ease you in.”

Coming off the back of an injury, Rasmus Højlund was also eased in over the weekend. Could Ruud van Nistelrooy’s addition to the coaching staff help improve on his finishing in front of goal?

“Well, you hope so, don’t you? He was a top striker himself and even if it's just small details, in football it can help Højlund massively along. But he’s worked with both the defenders and the attackers which is interesting but it makes sense,” believes Brown who came through the United academy and was a little gutted to see Scott McTominay leave Old Trafford for Napoli.

“Scott's one of those players that will give you everything. He's been in and out of the first team for a few years. The manager ultimately wanted to go a different way, which is absolutely fine. But I think everybody wishes Scott the best. It's a shame he couldn't have stayed more. I think Scott was played out of position a lot of the time. I think he's a defending midfielder but we did see last season that he's more than capable of scoring goals and joining in with the play.”