Former Man Utd teammate admits Maguire situation ‘doesn’t look great’ as Ten Hag ponders next move

Ben Stewart
Manchester United's Harry Maguire warms up ahead of the Premier League match at Old Trafford, Manchester. Picture date: Sunday April 30, 2023.

Harry Maguire has come under fire recently and former Manchester United teammate Nemanja Matic admits that his situation “doesn’t look great” right now.

The England defender has been a squad player for most of the season, with Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez ahead of him.

He has been handed some more opportunities of late due to injuries in the United backline, but he has struggled to find any consistency.

Maguire especially struggled in the Europa League against Sevilla as Erik ten Hag’s side lost 3-0 on the night.

“I can understand why he’s playing for England because he’s a great player,” Matic told Sky Sports.

“When he signed for United, in his first season he played almost every game and he was one of the best players.

“The problem today is that if you play two or three games not great, with social media, everyone criticises you and maybe that affected him.

“But he has to think only about his job because in football everything can change in a few weeks. His situation doesn’t look great at the moment but he needs to be focused.

“He’s very professional and we’ll see what the future brings for him.”

The 30-year-old has only played 663 minutes of Premier League football this season and his long-term future at Old Trafford looks bleak.

As Ten Hag prepares for the summer transfer window, Maguire could well be moved on in the following months.

However, Paul Parker thinks that the club could have a problem with trying to shift the defender as he is not “ambitious enough to move on”.

“Harry Maguire is not able to hold a line. He can’t do that. He wants to defend deep, which is why he ideally should move to a club that is playing with a deep line,” Parker told BonusCodeBets.

“Of course, he can’t play for a club in the top ten. He might be able to play for one of the teams below that if they are defending deep. He can’t play for a progressive team.

“But Maguire is going to be a problem in the summer window. I don’t think he wants to leave and I don’t think the clubs want to pay what Man United are valuing him.

“He enjoys being a Man United player and he is probably not ambitious enough to move on and keep his spot in the England squad. He might think it’s secured no matter what happens. He has this embedded confidence in himself, which in fact can be called arrogance to be perfectly honest.”

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