It shouldn't work as well as it does, but the evidence is indisputable: currently Jesse Lingard is Manchester United's best No. 10.

That's not to say that he is United's most creative player -- Paul Pogba still lays on chances in abundance, even from a more deep-lying role than he would like -- but, in Jose Mourinho's 4-2-3-1 system, Lingard is extremely effective.

For anyone who watched Lingard closely last season, this is a significant turn up for the books. While he was already well established as a player who could score vital goals, there were doubts over his ability as a playmaker -- very often, his attempts to force the pace of the game would founder, with quick touches not finding their man and one-twos not completed.

This year, though, everything seems to have clicked and he is probably behind only David De Gea and Romelu Lukaku as his club's best player.

When discussing Lingard's suitability for the England team recently, former United defender Rio Ferdinand observed that, while some attacking midfielders like to dwell on the ball, Lingard is ready and able to play one-touch football at high speed -- a quality that unsettles elite defenders.

It is ironic that Lingard, a homegrown player, has ended up doing the role in which the much-heralded Henrikh Mkhitaryan was expected to excel. Indeed, if you had told anyone 18 months ago that Lingard and not Mkhitaryan would be the fulcrum of United's attack, they would probably have passed you the smelling-salts.

Yet there United were at the weekend, sweeping Swansea aside with Lingard playing the same type of ball to free Alexis Sanchez -- a reverse pass into space -- that Mkhitaryan had played to Lukaku against the same opponents at the start of the season.

Indeed, Lingard is performing the same sort of duties as Oscar did for Mourinho at Chelsea -- a playmaker pressing high up the pitch, more defensively aggressive than a traditional No. 10, and bursting forward to provide goals of his own. Lingard is better suited to this brief than Sanchez, who though extremely hard-working is essentially a soloist. It is unsurprising, too, that Lingard is played centrally ahead of Juan Mata -- who Mourinho sold, after all, to make way for Oscar at Stamford Bridge.

Another pleasing and necessary development in Lingard's new role is his attacking chemistry with Lukaku. This is crucial since none of the forwards playing behind Lukaku -- Mata, Lingard and Sanchez -- are out-and-out wingers, and so the Belgian must receive a different form of supply.

Lukaku's game is well suited to quick touches and movement in and around the area, where he can either lead the line or drop deep to supply others -- a key example of which was United's 3-1 win away to Arsenal earlier this season, where he and Lingard excelled.

Lingard's quick style helps United move the ball faster. Matthew Ashton/AMA/Getty Images

How much further United can go with Lingard at the helm of their attack remains to be seen, yet there is an argument that Manchester City's form has been so freakishly good that it has distorted assessments of the rest of the division, and particularly how much progress United have made under Mourinho.

Looking at the league table, for example, United have a better goal difference than Tottenham Hotspur, a side rightly praised for their excellent balance between defence and attack. United have scored 60 and conceded 23 for a goal difference of +37, while Tottenham have scored 62 and conceded 26 for a goal difference of +36.

Liverpool, meanwhile, have a comparable figure -- a goal difference of +40 (scored 75; conceded 35). City, of course, are way out in front (+67; scored 88; conceded 21).

The goals-for column is the final frontier for United. Mourinho's hope is presumably that Sanchez, who looks as if he is gradually finding his feet at Old Trafford, will soon begin to score freely and help to close that gap.

With Lingard having another few months in this role, and Sanchez getting more familiar with his new teammates, United's attack could have a much greater fluidity in the coming months.

At the moment, Lingard is trusted to provide greater thrust and purpose than Pogba, but it is still an open question whether this muscular, functional approach can prosper against Europe's elite teams. For example, it is instructive to watch how Real Madrid's Isco finds space between the lines that few others can.

For the time being, though, it is simply remarkable that Lingard has established himself not only as one of his team's best inside forwards but as its most reliable central playmaker. Mourinho may change a fair bit at Old Trafford this summer, but Lingard's role should not be part of it.