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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Daniel Murphy

David de Gea named as 'great' candidate to be Manchester United captain

Former Manchester United player Tomasz Kuszczak doesn't understand why one of David de Gea or Cristiano Ronaldo isn't the captain of the club.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made Harry Maguire United's new captain just a few months on from his big-money move from Leicester City when skipper Ashley Young departed for Inter the following January. The defender has struggled to live up to his £80million price tag and has had an especially difficult season this term, coming in for plenty of criticism.

Not only for his defensive work but also for his capacity as a leader, with many calling for the armband to be given to someone else. Kuszczak agrees with that line of thinking and believes the team's most experienced players, either De Gea or Ronaldo, should be leading the side.

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"Of course," the retired goalkeeper told MEN Sport, with Bet365, when asked if De Gea should be made captain. "Usually, the club captain is someone who has a lot of if not the most experience within the team. There are so many good names who could be captain: Ronaldo, De Gea, I don't see why either of them aren't already.

"You can tell after so many years at United De Gea has all the skill, experience and knowledge required to be captain. It's not just because he's my friend and a fellow goalkeeper. It's the amount of games under his belt, if the manager decides to make him club captain, he'll do a great job."

However, Kuzsczak did stop short of blaming Maguire for United's failings this season, insisting that the whole team doesn't defend well enough not just the centre-backs. He added: "I wouldn't blame Harry Maguire.

"I know he's getting a lot of criticism but there's more to it than him. He performed very well at Leicester, the English national team and even United when he first joined. I wouldn’t say that he makes mistakes after mistakes. I wouldn't even blame the centre backs for the defensive errors, I'd say the whole team is underperforming.

"These players are good enough to perform at an elite level, but the whole structure at United doesn't work."

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