- Remains club captain at Old Trafford
- Fell out of favour earlier this season
- Questions being asked of his future
WHAT HAPPENED? The England international defender, who remains club captain at Old Trafford, has endured a testing 2022-23 campaign. He started the season in Erik ten Hag’s plans, but quickly slipped out of them and has found himself stuck on the bench. Questions have been asked of his future as a result – with the likes of Lisandro Martinez, Raphael Varane and Victor Lindelof ahead of him when everybody is fit – but Parker has questioned whether Maguire has the ambition to drop down to a level more befitting of his ability.
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WHAT THEY SAID: Former United defender Parker, who won two Premier League titles during his time at Old Trafford, has told BonusCodeBets: “Victor Lindelof's level isn’t dropping when he is playing alongside Harry Maguire, but Maguire makes him look bad. Imagine a movie with one very good actor and one very bad actor. The actor that is actually quite good would immediately look bad because he has to carry the other actor on his back. That’s what Lindelof is doing with Maguire and it’s completely different with Luke Shaw.
"With him, Man United are having two good actors, to stay in this analogy, and they are complimenting each other. Luke Shaw is very good on the ball, which is what everyone wanted to say that Maguire was when he signed for United. But the ones that saw him for Hull knew that he was never good on the ball. All he was doing was dribbling around the box and making mistakes, which were classified as unlucky. It was a selling point.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE: Parker added, with the 30-year-old centre-half tied to a contract through to 2025: “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. Of course he can't play for a club in the top 10. 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 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 an arrogance to be perfectly honest.”
IN TWO PHOTOS:
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GettyWHAT NEXT? Maguire has taken in 29 appearances this season – getting his hands on the Carabao Cup along the way – and is up to 173 in total for United, but increased competition for places may force him to look elsewhere during the summer transfer window.