Gary Neville was quick to defend Harry Maguire after the Manchester United captain made a mistake in the Europa League quarter-final clash with Sevilla.
Maguire started for the Reds in their second leg clash against the La Liga outfit, but he was disposed just eight minutes into the game as the home side took the lead against Erik ten Hag's side. The England international lost the ball on the edge of his own penalty area after receiving the ball from David de Gea.
The United shot-stopper passed the ball to his captain after Maguire had called for it, but he was closed down by three Sevilla attackers and dispossessed by Erik Lamela, who pinched the ball. The former Tottenham man set-up Youssef En-Nesyri, who fired past the helpless De Gea.
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It gave Sevilla a 3-2 lead on aggregate early into the second leg, with the Spanish side having come back from going two goals behind in last week's first leg at Old Trafford. While Maguire came under criticism for the goal, former defender Neville blamed De Gea, rather than the England centre-back.
He tweeted: "Maguire will get battered but that pass from De Gea I wouldn’t like!"
Paul Scholes, speaking on BT Sport, added: "Just get rid of it. Clear your lines. I can only think of one centre-half in world football who would want the ball in that position and be able to handle it - Harry Maguire is not one of them. David de Gea can see that, he can see that there’s three men around him and he isn’t comfortable in that position.
"We saw how hostile that crowd were before the game, they’ve been so aggressive and so against Manchester United that you’ve got to give them credit, but as I said, in the warm-up we were eulogising about how impressive and how hostile the crowd was, so when the players see that they have to go into that dressing room and think ‘right, I’ve got to be ready for this, my first touch has got to be ready.’
"You see Jadon Sancho in the first five minutes, the ball bounced off him three times and he had a terrible weight of pass. I’m a big fan of the lad but you’ve got to liven up, you’ve got to be ready. They just weren’t ready."
Maguire was making just his second start in Europe this season at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, with first-choice centre-backs Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane both suffering injuries in the first leg.
The Reds went 2-0 down on the night, and 4-2 on aggregate, after Loic Bade scored with his shoulder in the second period.
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