Erik ten Hag lauded the return of Christian Eriksen to the Manchester United starting XI after their 2-0 Premier League win at Nottingham Forest.
Eriksen was originally named as a substitute at the City Ground but Marcel Sabitzer sustained an injury in the warm-up and Eriksen was selected to start with less than 15 minutes notice.
The 30-year-old returned from a 10-week lay-off with an ankle injury in the 2-0 defeat of Everton last week and Eriksen started for the first time in 11 weeks at Forest, where he earned a standing ovation when he was substituted late on.
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"You know that when you have injuries you have to replace," Ten Hag said. "But I've said often, I think we have more than 11 starting players and I think we proved it today. The players on the pitch had a really good performance.
"He (Eriksen)'s a natural talent. Everything is going so smoothly with him, so many skills, game understanding. He would not have started if Marcel hadn't dropped out but also when Marcel's dropping out, we're really happy with his performances in the last games. When you bring on Christian it's not a disadvantage for your team and he proved it.
"Yeah, at the last minute [Bruno Fernandes's role changed]. It's a little bit of a different role but it's not that huge because we want rotation there, to be fluid and our full-backs play an important role in our game in possession there. I think both did very well, they played a very good game."
United have won 15 games, drawn two and lost none with Casemiro, Eriksen and Fernandes in the starting XI. Casemiro made his first league appearance in five weeks after serving a four-match domestic suspension but Fernandes is banned for the second leg of United's Europa League quarter-final with Sevilla on Thursday night.
Sabitzer's withdrawal means United have an XI of injured players ahead of a quarter-final decider in Spain three days before the FA Cup semi-final against Brighton at Wembley. Luke Shaw failed to recover to face Forest while Tyrell Malacia was absent with a sore knee.
"You see how quickly things can change," Ten Hag added. "Last week we had nine top-fit defenders, today we had four. We need the numbers, we are one of the few teams in three competitions in Europe, we are in a lot of games, we need the numbers to stay in those competitions because we want to bring a good team every time onto the pitch.
"Today was one step, we prove we can perform really well with those players. Thursday, we have to go again and Sunday we go again."
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