Teddy Sheringham has compared Harry Maguire to former Manchester United centre-back Gary Pallister.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer officially installed Maguire as United captain last year and the centre-back has since faced scrutiny over his credentials to wear the armband — which has intensified this season following his underwhelming performances.
Maguire has struggled with injury this term but he's failed to convince on the pitch when he has been fit and selected.
The 28-year-old was sent off in United's 4-1 capitulation against Watford last month — that proved to be Solskjaer's final game in charge — and, while he's been seemingly regained his form to a certain extent in December, doubts still linger surrounding his captaincy.
Sheringham recently spoke to Manchester Evening News and he delivered his verdict on Maguire's captaincy.
"I see him very much like a Gary Pallister. He’s very, very similar to him," Sheringham said.
"He’s very comfortable on the ball and he knows his position. I just feel that when Gary was playing at Manchester United he was allowed to keep his full-backs in alongside him. The full-backs were never much further than 10 yards apart.
"A lot of the times you’re getting balls played in the channel and centre-halves don’t want to play one-against-one in channels.
"When you get left open, your confidence goes down, everyone's accusing you of being in a bad position but if he had more leadership qualities about him, he could say to Luke Shaw, for example, ‘wait come here. look, this centre-forward isn’t bad'.
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"He needs to say: 'I don't want to be tested against him one against one. You come and sit in. We've got loads of players up there that can score goals for us and can hurt the opposition. You come and sit alongside me. We ain't conceding for the next 20 minutes.
"You win football matches as a team. Harry needs to get his big chest out and say ‘oi, I'm the leader here. You lot sit in."
Teddy Sheringham was speaking to the Manchester Evening News in association with 978bet
