Captain Harry Maguire is not to blame for Manchester United's mixed campaign so far, according to former Old Trafford favourite Louis Saha.
Ahead of the midweek Premier League fixtures, United sit eighth in the table, though they are only five points off the top, with a game in hand.
They are unbeaten in five league matches since losing at home to Arsenal at the start of November, winning four and drawing the other (a goalless stalemate against Manchester City last time out).
However, they recently crashed out of the Champions League at the group stage.
That disappointment raised more questions about United under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer this term.
The defence has come under the spotlight, with 17 goals conceded in 11 league games and six in their final two Champions League fixtures against Paris Saint-Germain and RB Leipzig.
Asked about centre-back and skipper Maguire, ex-United striker Saha told GentingBet: "Harry Maguire is a good defender so I’m not going to blame him for the bad results and performances defensively.
"Sometimes it could be his fault but sometimes it’s (Victor) Lindelof or the full-backs or even (David) De Gea.
"It’s a combination of mistakes from the backline and no one has been consistent to be responsible for all the mistakes.
"When you have a pair playing together, making mistakes is totally normal but you expect the other to cover for those mistakes.
"You could have someone who actually reads the game and then does the right thing.
"He (Maguire) was brought in to bring that confidence and that’s not always what he has done.
"But sometimes he doesn’t even have the help of the goalkeeper so this foundation needs to be more solid and as a result, give that freedom to the strikers to actually bombard forward.
"But because United are conceding goals easily, they automatically think about defending and not conceding more goals, which makes it more difficult to attack."
United are back in Premier League action on Thursday night, when they take on rock bottom Sheffield United at Bramall Lane (8pm).
