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The Manchester United players were in a modest mood as they strode to their bus parked outside Anfield's main stand on Sunday but one of them looked particularly pleased with himself.

Morgan Schneiderlin was as chirpy and jaunty as Liam Gallagher as he sauntered past the freezing journalists gathered and stewards drifting outside of the ground, joking with Albert Stuivenberg while his teammates stoically walked on.

Schneiderlin could be forgiven for feeling satisfied. Only a month ago, he was overlooked for United's defeats to Norwich and Stoke, the latter particularly highlighting his importance to the side.

The France international has taken time to find his feet but, out of the 15 players United have signed since Louis van Gaal's appointment was announced, Schneiderlin's arrival remains the most important.

Schneiderlin produced, if not his best, then his most pivotal performance at Liverpool. He was gutsy, game and composed, lambasting defenders for playing the ball long when he was prepared to act as the conduit between the defence and the attack.

The irascible Marouane Fellaini, with a temper that could set off a car alarm, offered little defensive nous yet Schneiderlin was ready. Clad in a short-sleeved shirt, he did not need to roll them up.

Schneiderlin revealed afterwards United players were 'screaming and shouting' at each other and he might well have been involved. Schneiderlin is a placid presence but has a steely side. He has collected 30 yellow cards and one red in less than four Premier League seasons.

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Plenty of passes went astray from Schneiderlin and the psedus' stats might suggest his influence on the game was minimal. His awareness and positioning, though, was so expert he was not required to make last-ditch tackles or interceptions and, positively, the player he played the ball to the most was Ander Herrera.

United are yet to lose a game with the 26-year-old on the pitch. In the one match Schneiderlin lost in at Swansea, he was bafflingly withdrawn with 20 minutes remaining. It would be disparaging to describe him as Van Gaal's lucky charm, although it is not a coincidence United fare worse without the former Southampton lynchpin.

Schneiderlin is yet to set the world alight at Old Trafford, but he was not bought to get supporters towards on the edge of their seats. He is a disciplined defensive midfielder and the one player who brings the balance that United have often lacked over the last 18 months.

His omission not just at Stoke, but PSV Eindhoven and Arsenal, was as daft as it was damaging. Van Gaal reacted prickly when he was asked why he overlooked Schneiderlin at the Emirates, where a tactically anarchic United capitulated against one of the league's most one-dimensional tacticians in Arsene Wenger.

"Would Schneiderlin not give more defensive stability?" Van Gaal was asked in a hushed press room.

"You can write that, when you think," Van Gaal bristled. "When I agree with you what do you think?"

"I'm a genius," came the journalist's reply. Several hacks laughed. Van Gaal didn't.

"Eh? What is that kind of question?" the Dutchman spat back.

Van Gaal was deprived of Schneiderlin in Wolfsburg and, watching that Kamikaze game of football, had the No.28 been available it is unlikely United would have played as porously as they did. They might even be preparing for a Champions League tie next month.

Bastian Schweinsteiger was heralded as the belated successor to Roy Keane - the post-2002 version - when it is actually Schneiderlin.

He is not going to chase a teammate round the dressing room, like Keane once did when he hared after Gary Neville at Highfield Road, or shove a colleague on the pitch (the other Neville), but Schneiderlin is becoming just as indispensable as the Irishman.

Keane flourished at Anfield, too.



