Erik ten Hag ‘picks two defender signings for Man Utd’ with Harry Maguire in trouble

Erik ten Hag appointed next Manchester United manager

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Manchester United incoming boss Erik ten Hag has identified two defensive signings he’d love to make at Old Trafford, reports say. One is Pau Torres, while the other is Jurrien Timber. And any move for the pair would likely spell trouble for Harry Maguire and his hopes of regular game time.

It’s going to be a big summer of change at Manchester United, especially with Phil Jones and Eric Bailly likely to spearhead an exodus of players.

And, now, journalist Rudy Galetti has stated Ten Hag is interested in landing Torres and Timber this summer.

With regards to Torres, it’s stated he’s seen as the perfect player to partner Raphael Varane at the back.

That suggests Ten Hag isn’t sold on Maguire, with the England international suffering an alarming dip in form over the past few months.

On Timber, he apparently wants the Ajax star to be his right-back.

Diogo Dalot remains a work in progress, even if the former Porto star has enjoyed more opportunities under Ralf Rangnick.

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And there’s talk Aaron Wan-Bissaka may leave United, with his old team Crystal Palace interested in taking him on loan.

Wan-Bissaka and Maguire cost a combined £130million.

But neither has lived up to expectations and, now, they could fall even further down the club’s pecking order.

If Maguire does struggle to make his mark under Ten Hag, it’s feasible he’ll have the captaincy taken away from him.

He’s been skipper of United ever since the departure of Ashley Young to Serie A giants Inter Milan back in January 2020.

But Maguire seems to be on borrowed time and it’s unclear what the future holds for him.

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His situation has now worsened after Rangnick suggested on Wednesday that players should be entitled to choose their skipper going forward.

When asked if he’d recommend Maguire to be skipper under Ten Hag, he said:  “I understand your question but again it doesn’t make sense because we don’t know what kind of players will be here, what the group will look like.

“I can only tell you what I have done in the past when I was head coach or manager because in Germany it’s called ‘Mannschaftskapitan’ — the captain of the team.

“I strongly believe the captain should be elected by the team because he’s called the team manager and we always did that, we always had a board of four or five players.

“We called it the ‘Spielerrat’ [players’ council] — elected by the players.

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“The player with the highest amount of votes was the team captain at the end. That was how I did it.

“I know a lot of head coaches don’t do it that way. That’s what I would do if I was still the manager next season but in the end I’m not. This is something that Erik will have to decide.”

United legend Paul Parker, meanwhile, wants Maguire to go ‘back to basics’.

He stated: “Harry Maguire is his own worst enemy because he’s trying to do things that he shouldn’t be doing.”

“He has to remember he is not playing for Hull City or Leicester anymore, he is playing for Manchester United.

“I think he’s got to go back to basics. He has to defend properly, learn to defend properly. He’s gotta sort out his own game, first and foremost.

“He’s the captain, but I think that needs to be removed.

“Harry Maguire can’t lead himself at the moment, so he needs to get his game in order because if he tried to lead as a captain and tell people what they’re doing wrong, I think that they’ll be about listening, with another player.”

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