Rio Ferdinand believes it’s time Manchester United captain Harry Maguire was ‘taken out the firing line’ after enduring a difficult start to the season.
The England defender was in top form for his country during the summer, helping the Three Lions progress to the Euro 2020 final, but has endured a noticeable drop off with United.
Maguire was singled out for criticism after his performance during last month’s embarrassing defeat to rivals Liverpool and was again the target of fans' ire after his red card during Saturday’s 4-1 loss to Watford.
The defeat at Vicarage Road turned out to be the final straw as far as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was concerned, he was dismissed as manager less than 24 hours later.
Former United defender Ferdinand, claims Maguire is still struggling with a ‘hangover’ from the Euros and believes some time on the bench may be the best thing for him.
‘Harry wouldn’t like to hear this but I just think sometimes you need to be taken out of the firing line,’ Ferdinand told the FIVE YouTube channel.
‘He’s had a long summer, a successful summer with England to a certain degree. He’s played a lot of football, comes back to United and physically and mentally it looks like there’s a hangover there.
‘He won’t take himself out of it, I wouldn’t either, I’d try and play myself through it, but at the moment his performances haven’t been up to the level required, for him, for Man United. The bar he set himself wouldn’t be there.
‘I saw Gary Neville spoke about it the other day that he was having a nightmare after three or four summers on the bounce playing football for England and Man United and needed time off.
‘I think Harry Maguire is probably at that point right now.’
United find themselves eighth in the table, 12 points behind leaders Chelsea after losing five of their last seven games and Ferdinand insists that every member of United’s squad needs to take their share of the blame for the current state of the club.
‘The timing [of the red card against Watford] was terrible,’ he added. ‘Harry will be gutted, devastated. He will be sitting at home, he’s a good professional, but he will be sitting there and having to take responsibility for his performances.
‘It’s bigger than a red card, this hasn’t been something that just happened at Watford, this has been building for the last few weeks.
‘It’s a bit of everything, it’s not the players completely, it’s not the manager solely and the coaching staff, it’s not just the people that run the club.
‘All of those elements and individual parts of the football club will have to take responsibility for where we are today because they all played their part in being at this low ebb.’
