Gary Neville has explained how Manchester United benefitted from the departure of star striker Ruud van Nistelrooy.

Van Nistelrooy is arguably one of the greatest strikers to have donned the famous Red Devils jersey and it certainly came as a huge surprise when they decided to get rid of the Dutchman in 2006, despite him having scored 24 goals during the prior campaign.

Now United legend Neville has spoken about van Nistelrooy's departure from Old Trafford and has explained that the prolific attacker's exit actually helped the Premier League giants due to the fact that it allowed the more hard working Louis Saha game time, in turn benefitting the team as a whole.

Neville was referring to Sergio Aguero's current situation at Manchester City.

Neville said on Sky Sports: "Think about his (Van Nistelrooy's) end at Manchester United.

"He was sacrificed at the time for Louis Saha, who obviously was not as good a goalscorer as Ruud van Nistelrooy.

"But he does a lot of the ugly parts of the game - the running into the channels and holding the ball up, the speed on the counter attack.

"And at the end it was an 'either, or'. It's a shame sometimes when you have these great players. Ruud van Nistelrooy is one of the greatest strikers that I've ever played with.

"But the team became probably better after he left because the style of the team changed."