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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Omar Garrick

Manchester United fans can ignore Harry Maguire vs Cristiano Ronaldo debate after latest post

If there's one area which has caused much debate in the Manchester United fanbase in recent weeks, it's with the captaincy.

While no one should be disputing that some of the poor performances are due to the team's overall deficiencies, it also can't be denied that individual errors have led to United 's downfall this season.

The 2-0 victory over Brighton gave supporters something to be happy about, but in the aftermath of that, the only thing that's been playing on the minds of fans is who should be captain of the club.

Current leader, Harry Maguire, has been criticised for his poor performances throughout the season and due to United's inconsistent results, he's received harsher critique compared to the rest of the team.

There's no doubt that there are other members of the dressing room who are more experienced than Maguire, which hasn't helped his authority on the squad because he doesn't have any major accolades to his name. When you have the likes of Raphael Varane and Cristiano Ronaldo in your team, it's always going to cause divide.

If you asked the majority of United supporters what they'd do, most of them would probably strip Maguire of the armband, not because he's a terrible player, but due to others having more impact on the rest of the squad.

Ronaldo is one of those players who's clearly someone others look up to and why wouldn't they? This is a man who's scored over 800 goals and boasts five Champions League titles to his name. Not to mention that he's also a legend of the club, who was part of the glory days under Sir Alex Ferguson. It's human nature to do that.

The problem is that it undermines Maguire and while the current United leader took to social media on Friday morning to deny reports of a power struggle between him and 37-year-old Ronaldo, people will have their own opinions and conclude why it might create a problem in the dressing room.

Ronaldo and Maguire are two big personalities in the United dressing room ((Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images))

Although supporters will have their own say, and rightly, about the captain of United, none of that should make a difference. While it's right to criticise the captain when the team are performing poorly, it's very rare that another player takes over the armband midway through a season. It just causes more noise.

On top of that, it's ultimately not up to supporters who becomes captain of Manchester United. Yes, people can make up their own minds based off reports in the media, but that means we're making a decision formed on potentially false narratives. Not everything turns out to be true in life.

The best person to judge the situation is Ralf Rangnick, United's interim manager who takes charge of training sessions week in, week out.

Rangnick has already confirmed he intends to keep Maguire as captain when speaking before United's 2-0 victory over Brighton;

He said: "In the past two games [before Brighton], yeah he had some weaker moments, against Southampton and when we conceded the goal at Burnley, but he's our captain and I don't see any reason to change that."

His decision seems clear then. Although a lot of United supporters may want a new captain, that isn't neccesarily going to happen, so there's no point getting worked up over it.

It'll be interesting to see if there's a change in the captaincy under the new permanent United manager, but until then, it's time to drop the talk over the Ronaldo and Maguire debate, unless something spectacular happens.

Should the captain debate matter? Follow our United On My Mind writer Omar Garrick on Twitter to get involved in the discussion and give us your thoughts on the matter in the comments section below.

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