Van Persie makes assessment of Harry Maguire at United

Robin Van Persie has called out on Man United captain Harry Maguire and mentions the area where the player must improve his game.

Robin van Persie has called out Manchester United captain Harry Maguire, saying that his distribution from the back must improve.

The United captain started on Wednesday in the Champions League against Istanbul Basaksehir but was unable to prevent his side from falling out 2-1 losers to the Turkish side.

It has been a difficult start to the season for Maguire, whose legal trouble in Greece in the summer was followed by a series of poor performances for club and country.

Istanbul Basaksehir 2-1 Man United – HT thoughts:

-Amateur mistake from the defence for Ba goal
-Bruno, Rashford tired and overburdened
-Why do all CBs look bad when they’re partnering Maguire?
-VDB neat and tidy, classy, better than Pogs ATM
-Martial gives lifeline #mufc pic.twitter.com/dl6EGGEi2D
— United Peoples TV (@UnitedPeoplesTV) November 4, 2020

Former United striker Van Persie has singled out distribution as one area of Maguire’s game that needs to get better. However he stressed that it’s not all the player’s fault.

“Everyone is talking about Maguire being fantastic on the ball, so far he’s not been fantastic on the ball going forward with his passing but that’s not only down to him,” Van Persie said as quoted by Goal.

“Overall, in some situations – the team is not well positioned. You see Fred coming to take on the ball from the center-back places – he should not do that, Maguire should do that – he should play in a zone higher up the pitch where it’s more difficult to play but it gives people more options to play.

“Forward players should play as high as possible. It’s not clicking because the positioning of the players is not right.”

United are currently 15th in the Premier League after a difficult start to their domestic campaign. With just nine goals from six matches, Van Persie believes that the team’s attack could be improved by more attacking moves that start from Maguire in the back.

“On the pitch what I’m seeing is that he could bring more to the team, defensively but especially on the ball because everyone was talking about how great he is on the ball,” Van Persie added.

“It is not only down to him, you have to make space for each other. He should get options in midfield from the forward players. Do they give him enough options?

“Sometimes it does click, you could see the midfielders did find the forward players but it’s not consistent enough for the moment. You should always have your runs in behind, you should always have depth in your game and that’s not always the case.”