Erik ten Hag has warned Harry Maguire the Manchester United captaincy will not be enough for him to win back his place.
Maguire was benched for United's 2-1 win over Liverpool and is set to be among the substitutes against for Saturday's lunchtime clash at Southampton. Although Ten Hag has no plans to take the captaincy off Maguire, he told the 29-year-old defender he must fight his way back into the team.
Maguire, who wants what is best for United, knows he faces a challenge to win back his place, but those close to him say the defender is determined to do so. Bruno Fernandes wore the captain's armband against Liverpool, with Ten Hag set to stick with Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez in central defence on Saturday.
“It doesn’t mean, when you are captain, you are established to play always, especially when you also have Varane in your squad,” said Ten Hag. “We have options. Varane's stature is immense and in pre-season we took a decision to build him physically, so he had a bit of a slow start.
“But his profile, his stature and what he won in the past shows that he can really contribute to his team. For the team there is competition, and we need that. We have to cover so many games and we can do that in several constructions.
“We can see from game to game what we need, what can be the construction for Liverpool, but also as in the second-half in Brentford we played with Varane and Maguire in the centre, so there are many options. We have competition internally and that’s good - that's what top teams need.”
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Asked whether he would consider reassigning the captaincy if Maguire remained on the sidelines, Ten Hag said: “I'm not looking so far ahead. We are only one game. We have a leader group. Harry is one of them Bruno is one of them. Bruno did quite well as captain.
“He led by example and he brings so much energy to the team in and out of possession.” New signing Casemiro is set to make his United debut and Ten Hag said of the five-time Champions League winner: “He can lead other players really well because he's a leader.”
