AS Roma star Nemanja Matic has, on Sunday, jumped to the defence of ex-Manchester United teammate Harry Maguire.
The name of England international Maguire, of course, has taken its place front and centre in the headlines once more across the early weeks of the new campaign.
This comes as the former Leicester City man continues to come in for widespread criticism, owing to sub-par performances at the heart of Man United’s backline.
Maguire, in turn, has been dropped by new boss Erik ten Hag, with the Red Devils’ ensuing upturn in form having given rise to calls for the 29-year-old to be confined to the bench indefinitely.
And yet, despite his ongoing woes, many remain of the opinion that the level of criticism directed at Maguire is frankly excessive.
The 47-time capped international has become something of a hate figure across large sections of the United fanbase, with efforts to take aim at Maguire all too often crossing the line from constructive criticism to legitimate abuse.
And now, as alluded to above, a former teammate of the Reds’ captain has followed suit.
Speaking in an interview with The Times on Sunday, Nemanja Matic was drawn on the subject of Maguire’s many detractors.
And the Serbian midfielder, who departed Old Trafford for Italy and AS Roma this summer, went on to label ‘what people are doing to him’ as nothing short of a ‘disaster’:
🗣 Nemanja Matic: “What people are doing to him [Maguire], it is a disaster. Everything has to have limits and some of these people writing on social media, they don’t have their own lives so they just have to write bad things about someone else.” [@TimesSport]
— UtdDistrict (@UtdDistrict) September 25, 2022
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