Rio Ferdinand pointed the finger at Harry Maguire after Manchester United threw away two points against Burnley on Tuesday.
The Red Devils captain was dragged out of position by new Clarets signings Wout Weghorst in the build-up to Burnley's equaliser and failed to dispossess the Dutchman.
Weghorst then picked out Jay Rodriguez with an excellent reverse pass, leaving Maguire in no man's land.
England international Maguire did his best to get back into position and chase his man down but didn't have the pace to catch Rodriguez who calmly slotted past David de Gea.
Criticising Maguire's lack of speed, Ferdinand said on BT Sport: "There's [Scott] McTominay, he's your protection, all he's got to do, Maguire, is keep pushing him away.
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"He hasn't got to over-commit, as soon as he over-commits, it's a great piece of skill, this pass is sublime. If Kevin de Bruyne does that [Weghorst pass] we'll all be going crazy.
"This touch across Maguire takes him completely out of it. I don't think Maguire is quick enough to have got there to affect that situation once it got beyond him.
"It's about stopping it at the source, once he had the big number nine, keep him facing [away from] the goal, he's got the security of McTominay in front of him, he can deal with him a little bit, these are small mistakes leading to big moments."
This isn't the first time Maguire's lack of speed has been called into question, as Roy Keane has previously hit out at the skipper's inability to keep up with play.
In 2020, the former United captain said of the centre-back: "If I were a striker, I'd love to be playing against someone like Harry Maguire. He clearly lacks speed and hasn't got the positional awareness to anticipate the danger."
While in September 2019, early on in Maguire's United career, Keane said: "I always worry about his pace on the turn, I remember the first goal against Crystal Palace where he's not doing the basics - covering round his other centre-half. Listen, he's 26 years of age now, you're worried if you're pointing these things out to him."
Maguire spoke to the press following the draw at Turf Moor in which he admitted his disappointment in the result.
"It was a disappointing goal on our behalf to concede. We came out in the second half a bit sloppy. We had long enough in the game to come back from that and try and find the winner," said Maguire.
"We demand on ourselves to win the football match so it is disappointing."
