Gary Neville has had his say on Manchester United’s embarrassing 4-2 defeat versus Leicester City.
The former club captain thinks the biggest mistake Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made at the weekend was starting Harry Maguire.
There has been an injury crisis at Old Trafford following the blow suffered to Raphael Varane on international duty. As a result, it looked like the Reds would be without their two main centre-backs for the trip to the King Power Stadium.
Maguire was injured during United’s home loss against Aston Villa last month and was expected to be about for a matter of weeks. Surprisingly, he was restored to the starting line-up at the weekend, but played a part in all four of his former club’s goals.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer decided to throw Maguire back into the mix and the defender performed abysmally. He could have called upon Eric Bailly but let’s not kid ourselves and pretend the Ivorian is the answer to United’s problems in the back four.
According to Neville, the 28-year-old should not have started against the Foxes.
Maguire played alongside Victor Lindelof at centre-back and United conceded 4 goals. The team needs to improve defensively ahead of the upcoming matches against Atalanta, Liverpool, Man City and Tottenham.
“On Saturday, the biggest problem Solskjaer made was the selection of Maguire,” Neville told Monday Night Football, as quoted by the Manchester Evening News. “He was absolutely nowhere near [fit enough]. We’ve all had games in our career where you are not fit and you are nowhere near it.
“Picking him in the first place was a problem, maybe not having [Raphael] Varane caused him to do that.
“But then not taking him off at half-time was another mistake, he was genuinely nowhere near it. I was at the game watching and then, after the game, I’m watching Thomas Tuchel give Sarr and Chalobah their games and their belief.
“I think [Eric] Bailly should have played alongside Lindelof, that was the biggest mistake.
“Maguire has been brilliant for United for the last two seasons, but the first problem the manager had was selecting him. He had no training for four weeks and was nowhere near fit.”
Gary Neville says Harry Maguire shouldn’t have played against Leicester… 👀pic.twitter.com/VWdZgw8DTd
— 101 Great Goals (@101greatgoals) October 18, 2021
Footage above courtesy of Sky Sports.
Let us know in the comments section who you think will start at centre-back against Leicester City?
Thank you neville tell him pls.
Maguire shouldn’t have played on Sat , but having watched him before he is very lazy and cannot run with any speed. you need a bit of speed to get back when play changes , he has not got any