Former Manchester United centre-back Rio Ferdinand believes Harry Maguire needs a dose of "luck" to help him get his career back on track.
The United captain, who joined the club from Leicester City in an £80million deal in August 2019, has experienced a difficult campaign and has attracted waves of criticism of late. The latest instalment came after he scored an unfortunate own-goal in Saturday's 3-2 win over Tottenham Hotspur.
Despite playing a key role in helping England reach the final of the European Championship last summer, Maguire has looked a shadow of his usual self this term. His performances have been littered with mistakes and interim United boss Ralf Rangnick has not been afraid to drop him to the bench in recent weeks.
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But while it is clear that Maguire has performed well below par over the last few months, Ferdinand has sympathised with the 29-year-old. He has outlined how every footballer, at some stage, experiences a spell where everything seems to go against you.
Ferdinand told Vibe with Five : "There are moments in careers, and Harry Maguire is going through it now, where everything you seem to do there seems to be a problem or a mistake.
"Every mistake you make gets punished and highlighted. Sometimes, I went through my career where I was making mistakes, but they didn't score, the keeper pulled me out of it or [Nemanja] Vidic made a tackle.
"That is what happens in teams. Maguire needs a little bit of luck to get out of this dip in form that he is having right now."
On the own-goal Maguire netted against Spurs, Ferdinand added: "He could have left it, maybe, but someone else could have been behind him to score it. Listen, those positions are hard for the defenders.
"You could say that he has to get back in there quicker, I don't know. But it is hard to put the blame on him."
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