Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has praised the impact of unsung hero Benni McCarthy during his first few months at Old Trafford.

The 45-year-old was appointed as the Red Devils’ forward coach at the end of July and has quickly became a key part of Ten Hag’s coaching staff.

McCarthy’s managerial experience includes being the former assistant manager at Belgian Jupiler Pro League side Sint-Truiden as well as coaching DStv Premiership outfits Cape Town City and AmaZulu, respectively.

The South African has been tasked with working closely with united’s attacking players, which has proven fruitful to the club following the impressive performance of Marcus Rashford this season.

“In our coaching staff, we had a lot of defenders and midfield players,” ,” Ten Hag told his club’s official website.

“I wanted also to find a good balance. He is offensive [minded] as he is a former striker and that is also a really specific job task in the team.

“I never played there, so I’m lucky to have someone in my staff who played there. Football is about scoring and you have a goalkeeping specialist, but you also have offensive specialists and, in particular, we have a specific scoring trainer.

“He has to add that, in details, working and for the rest of us, he has a relationship to all the players in our squad. He also has to work on the togetherness and he is doing a great job on that.

United forward Anthony Martial has also recently opened up about working with the South African at Carrington.

“Yes, he’s a coach I speak with a lot,” Martial said.”

Both on and off the training ground. On every occasion, he gives me a lot of good advice and that can only be a good thing for all the players involved.”