Manchester United fans are calling for Harry Maguire to be stripped of the captaincy after footage of his reaction to Anthony Martial’s red card in their 6-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur emerged.
Maguire produced a poor performance in Sunday’s humiliating defeat, earning a score of just 1.85 on BBC Sport’s player rating.
He was largely responsible for Spurs’ first goal, hauling teammate Luke Shaw to the ground as the left-back attempted to clear the danger, and things didn’t get much better after that.
Questions surrounding his suitability for the captain’s armband quickly surfaced, with Robbie Savage among those to call out the centre-back.
“Harry Maguire - a Manchester United captain? Seriously? He’s a good player but a Manchester United captain?,” Savage said on BT Sport, per the Metro.
“It was schoolboy defending and there was little to no desire.”
Maguire fronted up to the defeat, apologising to United’s fans on social media.
“Today was totally unacceptable, we apologise to the fans, you deserve so much more. There’s no excuses,” he wrote on Instagram.
“One thing for sure is that we will do everything we can to put this right.
“We’re all hurting but this is the start of a long season with everything to play for. We must stick together.”
Man Utd fans are angry with Maguire
The last thing Maguire needed off the back of his display was to lose the support of United’s supporters, but a new video from Sunday’s match has done just that.
In the clip, Marcus Rashford is seen reacting furiously to Anthony Martial’s first-half red card. The England international questions why Erik Lamela wasn’t also sent off for his part in the incident.
Maguire responds to Rashford by telling him that the incident was reviewed and that Lamela wasn’t punished as he didn’t display violent conduct.
“It’s not violent conduct, they’ve checked,” Maguire says to his teammate. “They’ve checked it and said it’s not.”
The clip can also be seen at the 3:46 minute mark of the video below.
Man United fans react
Many United fans are upset with Maguire for failing to fight for his teammates. And for a club that has had so many leaders over the years, that’s understandable.
Could you ever picture Roy Keane accepting the orders of a referee without having his say? No.
And in United’s current situation, where they’re under real pressure to get results, it’s only natural that the fans would have wanted to see Maguire back Rashford in his protests to the referee.
“He should be stripped off [sic] the captaincy immediately but that won’t happen unfortunately! The worst captain in the club’s history!,” one fan wrote.
Another said: “Kind of embarrassing honesty. How do we get this video to Ole. Right or wrong you should defend your players.
“Strip him of captaincy and give it to someone who gives a s*** about the club.”
