Manchester United legend Steve Bruce has defended Harry Maguire, who he believes has been made a scapegoat for his former club’s problems on the pitch.
Maguire joined United under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in 2019, and was made club captain by the Norwegian in 2020.
But it has since been a turbulent time at Old Trafford for the 30-year-old England international, who was stripped of the United captaincy this summer by United boss Erik Ten Hag.
The defender made several high profile errors last season, including in the 3-0 defeat to Sevilla in the Europa League which saw the Red Devils crash out of the Europa League spectacularly.
But former United defender Bruce, who made 414 appearances for United and was pivotal in helping Sir Alex Ferguson win three Premier League titles plus four other major trophies during his time at the club, believes the fingers have been pointed at Maguire because he is “easy to pick on”.
“Let’s be brutally honest about this, he is still an England centre-half,” Bruce told William Hill and Footy Accumulators’ podcast, No Tippy Tappy Football.
“I think Harry is a little bit unfortunate and has been made out to be a little bit of a scapegoat.
“He’s been easy to pick on. Yes, of course he has made mistakes, but what defender hasn’t?
“It’ll be interesting to see if he feels that his future is still at Manchester United. I’d be looking at myself and asking if I wanted to play on a Saturday.
“If I do, then is it time to move on? No one ever wants to leave Manchester United.”
Maguire has been heavily linked with a summer move away from the club, however, just last week, his rumoured £30m move to West Ham fell through, as per David Ornstein.
Maguire started United’s opening two matches on the substitute’s bench, with a scrappy win against Wolves and then a poor defeat at Tottenham leaving United with plenty to improve on for the rest of the campaign.
Steve Bruce was talking on William Hill’s No Tippy Tappy Football podcast.
