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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
George Smith & Stephen Killen

Rio Ferdinand criticises Manchester United captain Harry Maguire following Burnley draw

Former Manchester United centre-back Rio Ferdinand has accused club captain Harry Maguire of producing too many below-par performances this season following Tuesday evening's 1-1 draw against Burnley at Turf Moor.

Maguire's defensive error contributed to Jay Rodriguez being allowed to haul Burnley level just two minutes into the start of the second half.

Maguire failed to get close enough to Wout Weghorst, allowing the Burnley striker to play a reverse pass into Rodriguez, who moved the ball across the recovering United captain, before firing past David de Gea.

His effort, which marked the 100th league goal of his career, cancelled out Paul Pogba's first-half opener, meaning United were forced to settle for a point.

Maguire, who has started each of United's last three games in all competitions after being temporarily dropped by interim manager Ralf Rangnick, has been guilty of producing several poor performances this term, and Ferdinand has questioned if the former Leicester City man is experiencing a hangover from the European Championship last summer, which, of course, saw England go all the way to the final.

"I think he'll be disappointed," Ferdinand told BT Sport, reflecting on Maguire's second half showing. "In the first half he looked assured, him and Raphael Varane were very assured as a partnership.

"They were the dominating team, but in the second half the team didn't come out at the races.

"At places like Burnley, where second half the crowd will be up for it, that first five minutes in the second half is as important as any, because they can get one goal then it's an avalanche; the crowd's up and it will be a tough, tough evening.

"You can make it easy by doing the basics right and they didn't do that; they gave the ball away, the intensity wasn't there and they got overran 5-10 minutes into the second half.

"The goal was poor on Harry's part. Behind closed doors he will take responsibility for that, he doesn't need to come out here and go crazy, and he'll iron it out.

"The challenge he made just over the halfway line... he's lucky to stay on the pitch because I felt the striker was running in on goal.

"It's a performance he'll want to erase and get into the next game as quick as possible.

"But these things happen. This season, you've seen that [too many below-par performances]. I'm not sure if that's a hangover from the Euros, physically and mentally, I'm not sure. There hasn't been the consistency of a player you’d expect of that stature."

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