Sunday Times reporter Jonathan Northcroft recently appeared on a YouTube video for PL Today and he spent some time discussing the latest situation at Manchester United, with Harry Maguire’s fitness mentioned.
The journalist discussed the defensive issues in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side following their 6-1 defeat against Tottenham Hotspur recently. He certainly didn’t hold back when talking about Maguire, with the England international picking up a terrible 4.42/10 rating for his performance against the north London club (per WhoScored).
Here’s what Northcroft had to say about the 27-year-old during the video:
“[Victor] Lindelof had one of the worst performances I’ve ever seen from a centre-back against Crystal Palace until I saw Maguire’s performance against Spurs; it was appalling. He’s got his merits as a player – I think Maguire makes sense in some ways – but he’s not the finished player, by any chance.
“What’s happened to him in the summer clearly has had an effect on him psychologically and maybe fitness-wise; he doesn’t look fit, he looks tentative.”
TIF Thoughts…
Northcroft clearly seems to think that the incident over the summer, which saw Maguire arrested while on holiday in Greece, has had an impact on him psychologically, and could be part of the reason why he was so poor against Tottenham recently.
Do you think Maguire is struggling because of what happened during the summer?
Yes
No
The Englishman, who is valued at £50.4 million (as per Transfermarkt), was signed from Leicester for a world-record fee for a defender in 2019, so there is perhaps an expectation that he will perform well, but after a dreadful start to the season which has left United in 16th position after their first three games, he will certainly need to improve if they want to challenge for a Champions League spot.