Harry Maguire’s situation at Man Utd is bad - Nemanja Matic

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 2 May 2023 12:32 BST
• 4 min read

Nemanja Matic admits Harry Maguire’s situation at Man Utd “doesn’t look great” as he tries to give some advice to his former teammate.

Maguire has endured two miserable past seasons for Man Utd, ever since Euro 2020.

After an error-prone 2021-22 season, he finally lost his place in the first team during the current campaign as manager Ten Hag preferred Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez as his centre back pairing.

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When Maguire has played he has often struggled, including two huge errors in the Europa League quarter-final defeat to Sevilla.

Maguire has now dropped to fifth choice in the centre back pecking order at United, with left-back Luke Shaw even preferred to him recently in the absence of Martinez and Varane.

Maguire’s former Man Utd teammate Matic - who left to join Roma last summer - has attempted to offer some advice.

What did Matic say about Maguire?

"I can understand why he's playing for England, because he's a great player," said Matic. "When he signed for United, in his first season he played almost every game and he was one of the best players. The problem today is that if you play two or three games not great, with social media, everyone criticises you - and maybe that affected him.

"But he has to think only about his job, because in football everything can change in a few weeks. His situation doesn't look great at the moment, but he needs to be focused. He's very professional and we'll see what the future brings for him."

Maguire is still first-choice centre back for the England national team and performed impressively at both Euro 2020 and then at the 2022 World Cup in November and December of last year.

Matic did have more positive words for Marcus Rashford, who is enjoying the best season of his career at United.

"For me, he's one of, it not the best United player" said Matic. .He scores so many goals and he just needs to continue. For one player to perform he needs the support of all the team. If United as a team are doing well then always one player will appear a star.

"The good thing is that the star is a striker or winger or midfielder. In previous seasons we had the star of David de Gea and if your goalkeeper is the star that is not good; you are in trouble. I'm happy for Marcus... he's a talented player and a very good person."

Rashford has scored 29 goals in 51 games for United in all competitions in 2022-23 season.