Krishnan Sreekumar
Pundit Micah Richards urges Manchester United skipper Harry Maguire to hand the captain’s armband to Cristiano Ronaldo
Writing in his column for the Daily Mail, ex-Manchester City star Micah Richards has urged Manchester United captain Harry Maguire to give up the captaincy to forward Cristiano Ronaldo to deal with the pressure on him at the moment.
Maguire moved to United in the summer of 2019 from Leicester City was made the club captain by then-manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer within just a few months after his arrival. However, he has been poor this season, and some have called for him to be dropped and stripped of the captaincy.
Richards, who won a Premier League title with City, said that Maguire could do without having the weight of captaincy on his shoulders for the rest of the campaign as it was impacting his form this term.
“I’m not calling for Harry to be stripped of the role completely. Perhaps he could do with having the weight off his shoulders for the rest of this campaign. He hasn’t stepped out of line, he shouldn’t be punished. But perspective needs applying to what he is experiencing and the impact it is having on his form.”
Maguire has been prone to making schoolboy errors on the pitch and has looked off the pace in games, which has invited criticism upon the Englishman. Low on confidence this season, the defender has looked like a shadow of the player he once was.
“He knows how to deal with it”
Ronaldo, meanwhile, moved back to United last summer to start a second spell at the club after he initially left Manchester in 2009 to move to Real Madrid. At 37, he is an experienced campaigner not just in the Premier League, but also at the international level.
Richards urged Maguire to hand over the captaincy to Ronaldo, saying that in hindsight, the club should have given the Portuguese the responsibility as he knows how to deal with the pressure with his big personality.
“When Ronaldo returned last summer, the one question everyone asked was: ‘Is he going to be captain?’ Hindsight suggests United should have headed it all off and given him the responsibility because, if things aren’t going right, he knows how to deal with it with his big personality.”
Maguire’s form this season has invited criticism from not only pundits but also fans, who have not taken kindly to the England international’s form this season. Against stronger opposition, the defender has just not been able to keep up.
Funnily enough, the player looks like a different animal while playing for England and playing for the Red Devils, which has perplexed fans. Maguire looks more comfortable under Gareth Southgate than Ralf Rangnick, and he has not been able to convert his national team’s form at the club level.
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Ronaldo on the other hand, is a veteran in world football. Apart from being the skipper for the Portugal national team, he has also led his previous sides Real Madrid and Juventus at times when needed. In Maguire’s absence, the Ballon d’Or winner has been United’s skipper as well.
Whether taking the captaincy off Maguire would ease the pressure on the Englishman is up for debate, but perhaps dropping the player to the bench for a few games could help him clear his head. In Raphael Varane and Victor Lindelof, we have other centre-backs who can do the job, and so playing them could be to Maguire’s benefit as well as the club’s.
