For Manchester United, this has been a period to dig in and soldier on. To take setbacks in their stride and hope for better times around the corner.
In Harry Maguire, United have a player who is no stranger to such adversity.
Stripped of the captaincy, booed by his own fans and touted to West Ham in the summer, you wondered just how much more humiliation he could take after being reduced to a bit-part player by Erik ten Hag.
Credit to Maguire, he has kept his counsel and his dignity. The 30-year-old has re-emerged through it all as a key figure for United once again thanks to his own dogged perseverance and, it appears, Ten Hag’s strained relationship with centre back Raphael Varane.
It is no longer a case of whether Maguire plays but of who plays next to him. Victor Lindelof got the nod here in the absence of Lisandro Martinez, Luke Shaw and Jonny Evans in what was a throwback to the days under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
It worked well for Ten Hag as Lindelof maintained a theme of United’s defenders bailing out their misfiring strikers by scoring decisive goals this season as the Swede claimed his first in almost three years. Maguire, Varane and Diogo Dalot have been among United’s other matchwinners.
Maguire was in dominant form again to help United over the line against a spirited Luton, continuing to justify his decision to turn down a £30million move to West Ham in the summer and tough it out at Old Trafford.
‘I was willing to stay and fight for my place,’ said Maguire. ‘I am really enjoying my football and I really enjoy playing for this club. I played a few games last year and I felt like I performed really well. I just didn’t play as many as I would have liked.
‘I had to bide my time and be patient but I broke down with illness and injuries twice, so I never got the rhythm and run of games that I could prove myself to the manager. I’ve got that now.’
Maguire now heads off to join England manager Gareth Southgate, who has supported him through a difficult time, for the Euro 2024 qualifiers against Malta and North Macedonia.
Ten Hag, meanwhile, can breathe a little easier during the international break after a fourth win in five Premier League games lifted his team to within touching distance of the top four.
It doesn’t take into account painful Champions League defeats by Copenhagen and Galatasaray, as well as an embarrassing Carabao Cup exit at the hands of Newcastle.
That won’t be lost on Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his Ineos advisers as they prepare to sweep into Old Trafford.
Ten Hag isn’t out of the woods yet and some tough fixtures await when United return to action later this month.
The Dutchman will be banished to the stands for the first of them at Everton as punishment for picking up his third booking of the season.
Ten Hag can only hope that his Danish duo of Rasmus Hojlund and Christian Eriksen are not sitting with him at Goodison Park after limping off injured on Saturday.
MarvV420
0
Observe kingly. You see how Harry has treated his problems himself. The reaction of the Manager towards his players should be the right reasons why Manchester is struggling. Now with Varran. As a manager you don't need to be hard harsh to your players. What's the reason why Sancho is not ready to Apologize to his Manager ? Every player wants to play to maintain his club and country playing position. Varran and Ten Hag the manager are in logger heads. That's the reason why he is benching him. Tell me how a club has to progress with this unacceptable behavior towards your players. Too many problems between the Coach and his players just at the start of the season. Hard Difficult for players to perform to their Best. Was too early to strip the Captain armband from Harry.
Also stripping him of the captaincy was the best thing that couldve happen to him. I dont even know why he was given the captaincy in the 1st place. I will always say that Leicester did the best transfer business ever selling Maguire to us. Because he did nothing there i feel he even made their league winning defence worse
MarvV420
0
Observe kingly. You see how Harry has treated his problems himself. The reaction of the Manager towards his players should be the right reasons why Manchester is struggling. Now with Varran. As a manager you don't need to be hard harsh to your players. What's the reason why Sancho is not ready to Apologize to his Manager ? Every player wants to play to maintain his club and country playing position. Varran and Ten Hag the manager are in logger heads. That's the reason why he is benching him. Tell me how a club has to progress with this unacceptable behavior towards your players. Too many problems between the Coach and his players just at the start of the season. Hard Difficult for players to perform to their Best. Was too early to strip the Captain armband from Harry.
Harry is lucky to still be in the team. Yes he played a few good games but look at the opposition he played against. If it was a top 4 or even top 6 team Maguire doesnt perform. Even im UCL he isnt performing and the only team we supposed to worry about is Bayern Munich. Maguire cannot be trusted in the heart of defence. the pure fact that from Ole's brought him in Man utds defence has been shambles. Harry makes everyone else around him nervous and for years now its talk of finding the perfect partner to cover for him. What kind of BS is that. Why couldnt we get players that could cover Pogba's defence weakness or the fact that CR7 couldnt run anymore or any of the other players that had to be let go even though they were all better than Maguire.
vayabeklnz
1
Observe kingly. You see how Harry has treated his problems himself. The reaction of the Manager towards his players should be the right reasons why Manchester is struggling. Now with Varran. As a manager you don't need to be hard harsh to your players. What's the reason why Sancho is not ready to Apologize to his Manager ? Every player wants to play to maintain his club and country playing position. Varran and Ten Hag the manager are in logger heads. That's the reason why he is benching him. Tell me how a club has to progress with this unacceptable behavior towards your players. Too many problems between the Coach and his players just at the start of the season. Hard Difficult for players to perform to their Best. Was too early to strip the Captain armband from Harry.
the captain responsibility was a burden to Maguire.... if he wasn't stripped, you might not have seen this his improvement... Media criticism became less cos he wasn't in the spotlight. Kudos to him for taking the bull by the horns and turning things around.
josephelygeus
0
I'm not his fan
Dihabcdes
4
I love his mentality
vuklopstuy
1
Up Up Maguire we are with you👏👏❤️
rehaekorty
1
I am happy for Maguires. I just hope his struggles are behind him.
Adeyemi83
1
Observe kingly. You see how Harry has treated his problems himself. The reaction of the Manager towards his players should be the right reasons why Manchester is struggling. Now with Varran. As a manager you don't need to be hard harsh to your players. What's the reason why Sancho is not ready to Apologize to his Manager ? Every player wants to play to maintain his club and country playing position. Varran and Ten Hag the manager are in logger heads. That's the reason why he is benching him. Tell me how a club has to progress with this unacceptable behavior towards your players. Too many problems between the Coach and his players just at the start of the season. Hard Difficult for players to perform to their Best. Was too early to strip the Captain armband from Harry.
Are you a United fan?
HForca
1
Observe kingly. You see how Harry has treated his problems himself. The reaction of the Manager towards his players should be the right reasons why Manchester is struggling. Now with Varran. As a manager you don't need to be hard harsh to your players. What's the reason why Sancho is not ready to Apologize to his Manager ? Every player wants to play to maintain his club and country playing position. Varran and Ten Hag the manager are in logger heads. That's the reason why he is benching him. Tell me how a club has to progress with this unacceptable behavior towards your players. Too many problems between the Coach and his players just at the start of the season. Hard Difficult for players to perform to their Best. Was too early to strip the Captain armband from Harry.
S100K
2
The best defender at United at the moment, no doubt
Depbcklpru
2
As long as the armband is with someone else, he will be performing better with no pride. I beg let the lad focus on playing and improving 💥
Fabs_D
6
He's a tough guy inside... not an easy period to shake off... "##I Stand With Maguire"
EmeraldJ
5
Getting the weight of the captaincy off him is the best thing that happened to him.
cizceikruy
2
Wait till you play one if the big teams, it's starting with Everton then you can really see who the expensive fridge is
Alpha_Blondi589
1
still not good enough to convince us the fans. he can't even keep this up for 5 games in a row. he can only keep it up for 4 games alone
yes bro bro, I love this you're a good teacher
Vaaaben
1
Give credit to Maguire for grapping chance to rebuild his career. Both Varane & Martinez injuries have opened a new lease of life for Harry & he has accept it gracefully.
Saecemnopz
1
England Manager will regret together with Erik et hag for trusting Maguire as their the best defender when he starts scoring his own goals. Let Manchester United Management have another Coach, other teams are playing better, because they have the best Coaches than Erik ten Hag.
dude just shut up,united is having a lot of injuries n we are using new players who still need to adapt in our football so plz just shut up
bepbdntuy
2
he wasn't supposed to be captain in the first place and his price tag would put more pressure
Jeremykyan1
0
this guy he will die red. he deserves the armband back to him. he is playing like ten hag now
only to end up losing to fucking Burnley and Sheffield under him? no thanks, his head is too big to be a captain.
Jeremykyan1
0
still not good enough to convince us the fans. he can't even keep this up for 5 games in a row. he can only keep it up for 4 games alone
nahadmtuz
0
England Manager will regret together with Erik et hag for trusting Maguire as their the best defender when he starts scoring his own goals. Let Manchester United Management have another Coach, other teams are playing better, because they have the best Coaches than Erik ten Hag.
SMHellas
5
He is in good form but I still don't think he has a long term future at United. Ten Hag has had to compromise his game plan to fit him in, we're going back to Ole tactics and that won't change until Maguire and McTominay are gone. They are not bad players but they don't fit with how we should aspire to play
Rozbdlnpy
1
this guy he will die red. he deserves the armband back to him. he is playing like ten hag now
Asapmills
6
Maguire situation is the definition of NOTHING LAST FOREVER no matter what situation you’re in, just keep it up 💯👏🏻
Backpackerinspace
0
No comment🤐