The defender's tackling ability has been a real feature of his play, and has quickly endeared him to the United faithful.



It seems incomprehensible that he was a winger in his Academy days at Palace as he appears to be such a natural when it comes to stopping opponents in their tracks.



“I love tackles, man,” he explained. “I want to come out with the most tackles from each game; that’s my aim.



“I’m not really happy when I come out of a game without many tackles. At the same time, when I look back at it, it doesn’t mean anything negative, necessarily – it might mean that the winger’s not confident to keep on coming at me, for me to have the chance to tackle him.



“Wingers hate it. When I was a winger, I hated being tackled! When I attempted to beat a player and he slide-tackled me, I’d just think: ‘I don’t want to go down there again,’ and change the route, change my play, you know?”