Paul Scholes believes Manchester United's first-choice midfield would be able to mount a Premier League title challenge next season.
Casemiro, Christian Eriksen and Bruno Fernandes established themselves as Erik ten Hag's first-choice midfield unit during the first half of the season, the trio ever-present in the middle of the park. United are unbeaten across all competitions when they start together, with the Dutchman admitting earlier this week that they provide the best balance.
Eriksen had been unavailable since January with an ankle injury, returning off the bench in Saturday's 2-0 win over Everton, while Casemiro has been in and out of the side due to a couple of domestic suspensions. But Scholes believes that a fit and firing trio would be good enough to challenge for the title next season.
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"I think in certain games it’s the strongest three," Scholes told BT Sport. "I do worry about that midfield defensively when you’re playing against your Manchester City’s and Liverpool’s especially.
"I think this coach is very attacking and we like that but in them big games you’ve seen two really bad results - Manchester City away, Manchester City scored six - he only played one holding midfield player. I think with the Liverpool game it was exactly the same, so attacking but it leaves yourself open.
"I think we need two holders in them bigger games and I think the manager will learn that from this season. Against every other team in the league, that midfield he could play, because they’re clever enough. Eriksen’s clever enough, Casemiro, we know what he brings to that position, he organises everything around him and he can dictate play there, and Bruno dropping into deeper areas as well, it’s a strong midfield. That could be the midfield that challenges for the league title the next couple of years."
In recent weeks, Marcel Sabitzer has impressed as a box-to-box midfielder and the No.10 behind Marcus Rashford or Anthony Martial. The Austrian midfielder was signed on loan from Bayern Munich in January as cover for Eriksen, although there is neither an option nor obligation to make that move permanent.
But Scholes believes United should sanction a move for the midfielder nonetheless, adding that he has more than proven himself a capable squad player.
"He would be one who comes into them bigger games," the former Reds midfielder added. "We had people like Darren Fletcher and John O’Shea who went into midfield - proper athletes, absolutely brilliant coming into them games, getting against people. You’d worry about Eriksen and Fernandes in them situations but someone like Sabitzer you can rely on.
"He gets the ball - Fred, people like that - so as a squad player. Look, he’s done alright, you’ll see him tonight, he’s playing in a position further up the field which I don’t see as a long-term thing, eventually he will end up back in central midfield."
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