When Sofyan Amrabat is asked to describe what he will bring to Manchester United after making his first start for the club, he doesn’t focus on a wide passing range, or an ability to read the game, to protect the defence, to create chances. There is no mention of the things usually associated with a midfielder at the highest level.

Perhaps it is fitting for a footballer whose most famous moment in more than 300 career games is a tackle, a no-holds-barred reducer on Kylian Mbappe in a World Cup semi-final that even earned him a pat on the back from French president Emmanuel Macron.

There is an acceptance in Amrabat’s description of his own game that things can go wrong. Even at the very highest level, mistakes happen, and nobody will be technically perfect all the time. But there is one area in which no compromises can be made and no excuses given.

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“When I make a step on the pitch, for me it’s normal that you give everything, that you fight for every metre and give your all for the team,” Amrabat said deep inside the Old Trafford tunnel after his first start for the club on Tuesday night.

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“Of course you can make technical mistakes, everyone can have a bad game, but the most important is you fight for the badge, for the club, and that’s the minimum you can do. That’s normal and that’s what I try always.”

This is the spirit that Ten Hag values as highly as the technical ability to play for United. He saw traits of it in so many of his signings last season, from Lisandro Martinez to Casemiro and even Antony and Wout Weghorst. But maybe nobody embodies it quite as much as Amrabat.

Having selected the 27-year-old at left-back against Crystal Palace, Ten Hag described him as a “warrior” in his pre-match TV interviews, with a glint in his eye that suggested this was very much something he approved of.

Amrabat admitted his first appearance at Old Trafford had been a “perfect night”, the moment a dream was fulfilled. Although he has only signed on loan with an option to buy, he doesn’t intend to let this chance pass him by. At 27, he has had to be patient in earning a move to a truly elite club. He gambled on it being United this summer and had to hold his nerve right down to deadline day.

But on the evidence of his 61 minutes against Palace, there is more to Amrabat than the snarling destroyer who gives his all and lifts his teammates up by the lapels if required. Only three players had more touches of the ball than his 92, despite the fact he played half an hour less than Harry Maguire, Casemiro and Diogo Dalot, who were above him.

Amrabat was also third for passes, with 81, and he completed 78 of them. Often these were simple exchanges during the build-up, but twice in the first half he drilled crossfield passes to Dalot and then Facundo Pellistri. He also won both tackles he attempted and won possession back on one occasion as well.