One part of his game that I'm sure we'll get to see when the team is more settled and dominating possession is attacking runs that he could make which would help us fill the box and let the attackers be even more offensively minded in their output, varane should fill the role of an anchor nicely as he generally has decent positioning and the athleticism to recover for any mistakes made.
We couldn't see that part of his game in the previous 2 matches as we were all over the place and had some serious difficulties recycling possession and in the Liverpool game we went for a more compact counter attacking approach, adding some stability and cover in the midfield with additions like that of casemiro would help immensely, his defensive prowess should in theory help both varane and Martinez to play their best and for Martinez to join the attack.
His partnership with varane seems to be the definite way to go forward as they in theory (and in action as we saw yesterday) complement each other well, varane the more calm player filling the rio type role covering for his partner with Martinez filling the vidic role cutting off runs and in addition making runs for himself (something vidic couldn't do) with the difference being that the one proficient with ball at his feet is Martinez.
This partnership works much better than it ever did with Maguire as he doesn't really complement varane well but this one in my opinion could genuinely (i hope at least) have the potential to be a title challenging or winning defensive pair, but that would be contingent on varane keeping himself injury free which is rather disappointing but let's see whether he could keep fit or not as I expect ten hag to have improved fitness levels.
I wonder where this takes Maguire as I doubt he'd be first choice if the other 3 are fit but then having your captain on the bench is asking for trouble.
I thought Erik might go for a back 3 before we bought casemiro but that purchase alongside the formation he chose to stick with yesterday makes me believ that his conviction to keep it a back four is serious.
Interesting times ahead!