Maguire's mistakes hand Man City early lead

Fans single out Man Utd star for blame as De Bruyne hits first half brace in derby

March 6, 2022 By Emmanuel K. Budu-Annor

Topics: Premier League, Manchester United, Manchester City, Harry Maguire, Kevin De Bruyne

The defender received a lot of stick at half-time for yet another poor display for the Red Devils.

Manchester United fans reechoed calls for Harry Maguire to be dropped following another poor display in Sunday's Manchester derby. The 28-year-old defender received massive stick for failing to deal with the build-ups that lead to the Citizens first two goals.

Owning to Raphael Varane's absence, Maguire received a call up into the side's after being dropped for the 0-0 draw with in Watford in United's previous Premier League outing. However, the red's skipper failed to repay his manager's faith in him, making errors to put his side on the back foot.

It took Man City just four minutes to open the scoring with Kevin De Bruyne taking full advantage of Maguire's positioning the penalty box to put the host ahead. Parity was restored by Jadon Sancho in the 22nd minute although that lasted just six minutes with De Bruyne finding the back of the net once more.

David De Gea had successfully kept the ball out with a brilliant save at the near post and the spilled ball found it way into the path of Harry Maguire. However, the United skipper failed to clear his lines and allowed the ball to roll in-between his legs for De Bruyne to score his second.

Harry Maguire's dummy for City's second goal

(via @NBCSportsSoccer)pic.twitter.com/GGUZpEUcAT
— B/R Football (@brfootball) March 6, 2022

Fans have since taken to social media platforms to air their frustrations on Maguire's recurrent shortcoming. Below are a few reactions:

What Maguire should've done vs what he did pic.twitter.com/4sHB5Nq5Vy
— Dalibor Gojiš (@DaliborGojis) March 6, 2022

There wasn't a city player near him and he just stood there watching de bruyne stand there unmarked…
— Rein (@reindup) March 6, 2022

Maguire is 29. There is no magical upward trajectory. His flaws will become more pronounced in the coming years. People like Chiellini, T.Silva & co. have always had incredible closing intensity, so they were destined to be ageless
— Adroit Cadet (@Adroit_Cadet) March 6, 2022

As for Harry Maguire, he is so clearly very interested in football. Whether football is interested in him is a different story.
— Gary Al-Smith (@garyalsmith) March 6, 2022

Honestly can't get my head around Maguire stepping over the ball on the edge of the 6-yard box for their second goal? Like ???
— Josh (@_UtdJL) March 6, 2022