Former Manchester United defender Wes Brown believes the club's recent results and performances have highlighted that their troubles run far deeper than club captain Harry Maguire.
Maguire has often been pinpointed as the scapegoat for United's failings this season and has faced a wave of criticism, as well as, at times, disgusting abuse. He has experienced a difficult campaign and has looked a shadow of the player that performed so heroically for England at last summer's European Championship.
But whilst the former Leicester City man has produced several disappointing performances this term, he has played just 20 minutes out of United's last four matches. He stepped off the bench in Saturday's 4-0 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion, with the Reds already four goals down, after playing no part in the defeats to Liverpool and Arsenal and the draw with Chelsea.
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He has been struggling with a knee injury in recent weeks and interim manager Ralf Rangnick made the decision to leave him out of the starting line-up against Brighton. He came on for the final 20 minutes and was one of the Reds' better players, even though the damage had long since been done.
Whilst United's recent results have only further highlighted the deep-rooted problems running through the club, they have, in Brown's eyes, confirmed that Maguire is not the cause of the issues the Reds have faced this year. He felt he played "very well" against the Seagulls.
"Harry has put in some bad performances this year," Brown told The Sun. "But listen, everybody has.
"I think the last few games have done him a favour because you can see [without him] nothing has changed. He actually played very well when he came on against Brighton."
This forthcoming summer will signal the beginning of a huge reset at Old Trafford, with incoming manager Erik ten Hag set to make a raft of changes. However, Brown believes Maguire will find a route back to his best next term.
Brown continued: "When you're Man Utd captain you're going to get stick. When the results are what they are, you're going to get stick.
"Harry will go away in the summer and have a little break. He'll want to come back and prove everyone wrong with what has been said.
"To me, yes you can have a bad season, but it's how you bounce back. Next season will be massive for Harry but I'm pretty sure he'll get back to his best."
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