Gary Neville thinks Erik ten Hag’s ‘undermining’ of a player has had a negative effect on the Man Utd dressing room (Photo: YouTube/Getty)
Gary Neville reckons Erik ten Hag is partly to blame for the lack of leadership in the Manchester United dressing room after he ‘undermined’ Harry Maguire.
It’s been a difficult season for United who crashed out of Europe and have endured mixed form domestically, with the club currently sixth in the Premier League, eight points off the top-four.
Things have been looking up more recently, in part due to the emergence of young stars Rasmus Hojlund, Alejandro Garnacho, and especially Kobbie Mainoo.
Former Red Devils captain Neville is concerned however that these players don’t have the same support system that his generation enjoyed, which will affect their development and the team’s prospects going forward.
‘It’s a massive factor, the dressing room that you come into as a young player and the influence and standard bearers in the dressing room,’ the legendary right-back said on the Stick to Football podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet.
‘These United lads who have come through in the last five to eight years, if you’re a young lad coming through at Liverpool and Manchester City you’ve got a good chance, whereas if you’re at United now, you’re thinking whose guiding that dressing room.
‘Roy Keane only started to assume the mantle of being the dominant inspirational character at the age of 26 at Manchester United, but Marcus Rashford is nothing like Roy Keane in personality or character.’
Alejandro Garnacho, Rasmus Hojlund and Kobbie Mainoo could be the future of Man Utd (Photo: Getty)
Rashford has been the subject of much discussion lately after the England forward was dropped and fined for missing training and an FA Cup game after partying in Belfast the night prior.
Keane, another former United skipper, echoed Neville’s comments, adding: ‘We’re talking about plenty of players when we played who would happily give tough love.
‘But clearly no one is doing that at Manchester United for Marcus Rashford and that is one of the problems that the team has, they don’t have that core group of players.’
Harry Maguire was stripped of the Man Utd captaincy last summer (Photo: Getty)
But when discussing who in the current squad should be doing more, Neville questioned whether the lack of leadership could be attributed to Maguire losing his influence.
The defender was stripped of the armband last summer by Ten Hag as the England international was no longer in the manager’s plans, though he remained at Old Trafford and has worked his way back into first-team contention.
‘Casemiro should be dominating Rashford. I don’t think he [Maguire] would be getting hold of Rashford,’ Neville added.
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‘He’s not even playing. Harry’s been undermined in that dressing room since having the captaincy taken off him. He must feel completely dejected by what’s happened.’
United are looking ahead to a big clash on Sunday when they travel to top four rivals Aston Villa.
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