Former Manchester United man Danny Higginbotham believes Chris Smalling has developed into one of England's best central defenders over the last year.
Smalling has become a key player for United and has been named in the starting line-up for all nine of their Premier League matches so far in 2015-16.
"Smalling has been outstanding," the ex-Gibraltar international told Omnisport.
"It was towards the end of last season where he really started to get better.
"One thing I have said before is that the sign of a good defender is when they come off the pitch and you don't know how quick they are.
"That is the difference now - his positioning is so much better and you rarely see him having to go at full pelt trying to recover a situation. That stands out for me.
"It is down to experience and maturing. Definitely, he will have learned from the likes of [Nemanja] Vidic and [Rio] Ferdinand - you cannot fail to learn from those players.
"But I think Van Gaal coming in and probably taking more time on the positional side of things and being a more defensive-minded coach will always benefit the defenders.
"All those things put together is making Chris Smalling turn out to be one of the best centre-backs in England."
