Former Manchester United captain Harry Maguire has been heavily criticised at both club and international level.
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Andre Onana and Cristiano Ronaldo (Image: Getty Images)
Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher believes Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to Manchester United aided Harry Maguire’s downward spiral at the club.
Maguire has been the subject of headlines yet again this week after the abuse he received from supporters in stadiums and on social media. The former Reds captain was selected for England duty during the international break despite his minutes being limited at Old Trafford.
Unfortunately for the centre-back, his own goal against Scotland led to further ridicule online both during and after the match. This led to Gareth Southgate coming out to condemn the behaviour of supporters and describing criticism in the media of Maguire as ‘a joke’.
In his latest column for the Daily Telegraph, Carragher addressed the scrutiny of Maguire and while he feels selecting him for England is doing the defender no favours, he also believes the centre-back needs to make a move to drop the baggage from his time at United. The Sky Sports pundit then went on to list two moments at Old Trafford that have hurt Maguire’s standing at the club.
He explained: “Manchester United fans jeered Maguire during pre-season games in 2022 and 2023. One of the most distasteful incidents of all occurred during the friendly with Borussia Dortmund in July, when new signing Andre Onana started yelling at Maguire, in my view disgracefully playing to the gallery to endear himself to United fans.
“I watched that in disbelief, but it said everything about what has gone wrong. Maguire was still the club captain then. He should have reacted furiously, put Onana in his box and demanded respect. Instead, he has the persona of someone whose confidence and authority is utterly broken.
“It was a similar story when Cristiano Ronaldo returned and reports emerged about power struggles in the United dressing room. That is when the undermining of Maguire gained momentum.”
While the Onana incident was described as distasteful by Carragher, Maguire was actually ᵴtriƥped of the United captaincy on July 16 with the friendly against Borussia Dortmund taking place on July 31, meaning he was not club captain at the time.
