Erik ten Hag has warned Harry Maguire his status as Manchester United captain does not assure him of a starting role. Maguire was dropped in favour of Raphael Varane in United’s 2-1 win over Liverpool on Monday night, having indicated during pre-season Maguire was a “first choice” centre-back as he was skipper. Ten Hag has started £55.3million signing Lisandro Martinez in all three of United’s Premier League games and hailed Varane as “immense” after his first start of the season against Liverpool.
Erik ten Hag said: “I think that doesn’t mean when you are captain you are established to play always. Especially when you also have Varane in your squad. We have options. And you have already said… Varane… his stature is immense and in pre-season we took a decision to build him physically so he had a bit of a slow start. So he was fit in the first games but in the first period of pre-season he wasn’t always, so we are happy we built him in that way and you see when the team needed him he was really there and his profile, his stature and what he won already in the past shows he can really contribute to his team. For the team, there is competition and we need that. We have to cover so many games and we can do that in several constructions and we can see from game to game what we need, what can be the construction from Liverpool but also as in the second-half in Brentford we played with Varane and Maguire in the centre, so there are many options. I forget because of injuries: Victor Lindelof did really well in pre-season so I am happy that he will be back in the squad, so we will have another option. We have competition internally and that’s good and that is what top teams need.”
Maguire, 29, has been linked with a move to Chelsea but is focused on staying at United as Thursday’s transfer deadline looms. Varane and Martinez are expected to line up again at Southampton on Saturday. Ten Hag stressed he is not looking to reassign the captaincy nearly three years on from when Maguire received the armband under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Vice-captain Bruno Fernandes led United against Liverpool.
Erik ten Hag added: “I am not looking so far. We are only one game. We have a leader group and Harry is one of them, Bruno [Fernandes] is one of them. Bruno did quite well as captain. He led by example and he brings so much energy to the team in and out of possession.”
