It’s been a tough few months for Harry Maguire, and you could almost see the exact moment where everything caught up with him after he was sent off for England last night.
It was just one bad moment which topped a host of disappointing moments for Maguire and it looked like he was defeated in that moment, so everyone at Man United has a collective responsibility to lift him back up.
Maguire is the captain and the key leader in the dressing room so you know he’s the person that other players will go to when they need a boost, but now it looks like he needs the support of others to help him get back to his best.
When he’s at his best he is a top class defender who can anchor a team and gets the best from those around him, but he’s had a lot to deal with in recent months and something needs to change.
Former Man United midfielder Luke Chadwick spoke with Caught Offside about his experiences as a player and the situation facing Maguire just now:
“He’s had a tough start to the season, but a lot of that will be down to playing an incredible amount of football in the last year”
“He’s the one player that could’ve done with a break, but that shortened break turned into a nightmare situation with that happened in Greece.”
“He’s so big and powerful so it shows when he’s not 100% on his game.”
“He needs a huge amount of support but there doesn’t appear to be too many leaders in that dressing room.”
“He could do with a couple of games out of the team, but I don’t think the club can afford to do that at the moment.”
That final point is the most interesting one here because everyone can see it – Maguire needs some time to rest and recover before coming back and returning to his best form.
The problem for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is that he’s under an enormous amount of pressure with recent results and he needs to get a win against Newcastle on Saturday, so Chadwick admitted that this isn’t a good time to leave him out:
“Coming off the back of the 6-1 defeat to Spurs means it’s not a great time to leave out your captain, he’s the best centre half at the club”
It’s a situation where Solskjaer needs time to make decisions which will benefit the club in the long term, but he’s under pressure so he might need to act out of self preservation and that could damage things in the long term.
Chadwick stated that Maguire will simply need to play his way back into form, but who knows how long that could take?