Man Utd boss Ten Hag told he has rectified Solskjaer’s ‘two years in the making’ mistake

Erik ten Hag is 'happy and satisfied' after victory of Liverpool

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Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag has been told that in dropping Harry Maguire from his starting lineup to face Liverpool, he has fixed a problem that “has been two years in the making”. Former Red Devils head coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer continued to start the club captain despite his dip in form during his time in charge, but it has taken the new Dutch boss just three Premier League games to leave Maguire on the bench.

New signing Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane were preferred at the heart of the United defence as they picked up their first points of the season in Monday’s 2-1 win over rivals Liverpool, and former Crystal Palace owner Simon Jordan believes that the decision to drop Maguire has been building for a long time.

“Maguire’s [dropping] has been two years in the making,” Jordan told talkSPORT. “This sort of demolishing and destruction and degradation of his career has been 18 months in the making.

“I remember having a conversation with you [co-presenter Jim White] about 18 months ago when I made the observation that he turns like an ocean liner, and that was 18 months ago because there was criticism of his form then.

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So now you’re in a situation where 18 months now, it has built up to a crescendo last year, not anything to do with Ten Hag. It’s to do with the way he was playing and the perception of him and the complete lack of ownership the manager was having over where the team was going in [Ralf] Rangnick.

“Here we are at the beginning of the season, he’s out. It has started the same way. I think he is in jeopardy. I think he is in jeopardy of being marginalised by Manchester United and England as a result.”

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Martinez and Varane impressed against Liverpool in Maguire’s absence, and largely kept Jurgen Klopp’s attack at bay despite Mohamed Salah scoring with a header to reduce their lead in the second half.

Ten Hag explained why he opted to pick those two over his club captain ahead of kick-off on Monday. “You look at the approach to this game, we have a squad, a lot of games to cover, and we thought for this game it was best to make these changes,” Ten Hag told Sky Sports. “It doesn’t mean anything for the future.

“Varane is a really experienced player, he’s won everything in his career and will bring the communication in the back four, but that’s also what Harry does. We want mobility and agility in the back four, so that’s also why we have decided to play with the other three. Liverpool are a great team in and out of possession, you need to press them, and you have to do that out of a block, so you need a lot of energy.”

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