Manchester United captain Harry Maguire has finally spoken out about the criticism he was subjected to from fans last year.
Last season, when United exploded and collapsed under the leadership of Ralf Rangnik and Ole Gunnar Sulscher, the English defender was on the verge of the fury of most United fans, who blamed him for his extensive and numerous error-prone actions. it led to the fact that the team conceded a lot of goals.
Maguire has become a laughing stock and the personification of United's shortcomings. It didn't help the defender that the club bosses paid for him a world record fee for a defender, and he constantly made mistakes that cost his team dearly.
The culmination of all these ridicule was that the former Leicester City player saw hundreds of videos with failures and a selection of his mistakes posted on social networks. The situation escalated to the limit when Maguire was booed by his own fans, who were tired of him.
It got to the point that the player and his family were threatened to plant a bomb, which led to the fact that the police conducted a thorough search of his house.
Maguire spoke to The Times and said: “I still didn't pay attention to what was being said about me, I try my best to ignore what is happening in the outside world. No one likes to be talked about badly. It's just a human trait that we all have.”
“The bottom line is that when you are in the spotlight, it will happen. And I understand that perfectly well. But when my family reads this or the situation goes to extremes, it's probably harder for them to understand.”
As for why he seems to have the biggest goal on his back, Maguire blamed the shameful act of watching only short clips and highlights of the game on social media, as opposed to the traditional way of watching as much as 90 minutes of football.
He added: “Fans increasingly prefer short, expandable, high-octane footage of football moments rather than the time-consuming reality of the entire match. It's actually a shame for the game.”
Another reason he mentioned that contributes to his vilification is the fans of online football, where the value of opinion has become greater than ever. According to Maguire, since most fans do not watch football with their own eyes, they tend to be influenced by the mentality of the crowd and adapt to the dominant groupthink.
In his interview, he said that these fans were influenced by several people with a sarcastic point of view or bright moments that negatively inform about a certain person or player. Simply put, most fans cannot separate the failures of a team from the failures of individuals.
Maguire hinted to The Times that he may have fallen into this vice and fallen victim to a critical mass of online opinion that portrays him as a bad player.