When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has picked his Manchester United team in the 29 Premier League games so far this season, two names have been almost constant next to each other.
In the centre of defence, Harry Maguire has started every Premier League so far and 26 of the 29 Victor Lindelof has been alongside him. For what feels like the first time in an eternity United have a reliable central defensive partnership, as well as competition for places with Eric Bailly finding form again recently.
This is exactly what Solskjaer hoped for when United spent £80million on Maguire last summer. The England international was club captain by January and has given the defence an assured look, especially notable recently with a run of nine clean sheets in 11 games, and just two goals conceded in that run before the season was suspended.
Every successful side needs a centre back pairing who know each others games and work well together. While Maguire and Lindelof started slowly they have been a formidable partnership since the turn of the year, with Maguire explaining recently how the understanding has developed.
“We’ve had a good season up to now together. When you form partnerships, it takes time. I’m learning his game and he’s learning mine and I think we’re getting better," the 27-year-old said.
“We’re keeping a lot more clean sheets than we were at the start of the season and we’ve never really been a team which has conceded a lot of chances.
“It’s a partnership that’s building and I think we’ll get better and better, and start keeping more clean sheets like we have been doing recently.”
Solskjaer will be delighted that centre back is now an area he can mark as done when it comes to his United rebuild, certainly in terms of a starting XI and probably for competition as well, with Bailly and Axel Tuanzebe waiting in the wings and Luke Shaw looking assured in a back three.
That familiarity at the back is also something United have struggled for over the past decade, at least. This is the only second time since 2007/08 - when Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic were in their prime - that United have had two centre backs that have started more than 80% of Premier League games.
In that season, which ended in Premier League and Champions League glory, Ferdinand started 35 Premier League games and Vidic 32. Since then the only time United have had two centre back starting more than 30 league games was in 2015/16, when Chris Smalling started 35 times and Daley Blind 31 times in the middle of defence, yet nobody would describe that as a long-term partnership.
The point was proven a year later when the two most 'regular' starting central defenders were Eric Bailly with 24 games and Phil Jones at 18. Last season Lindelof started 29 times and Smalling 24.
For too long this has been a problem for United, the lack of a reliable and long-term central defensive partnership. In 2014/15 Jones (22) and Smalling (21) started most often. The list goes on.
Ferdinand and Vidic were United's last great centre back partnership and they were the last that showed any longevity with it. Yet a problem position has been solved in the way that so many are, by money.
There were plenty of eyebrows raised when United paid Leicester City £80million for Maguire, but it's been vindicated not only through his performances, but by his leadership and his burgeoning partnership with Lindelof. At 27 and 25 they have plenty of miles left on the clock, as do Bailly, 25, and Tuanzebe, 22.
As Lindelof told Inside United when discussing their partnership, Maguire has bought stability to United and has complemented the existing skills the Swede offered.
"Harry is a great defender. He reads the game well and he’s very, very good on the ball and I think we complement each other very well," he said.
"He’s very strong and in the air he’s fantastic and the way he’s been playing this season just shows what a great defender and footballer he is, and he can only get better and better."
As can the partnership between the two. It's the foundation from which United can build.
