How Harry Maguire compares to Premier League rivals as calls to drop Man United captain intensify

Harry Maguire’s performance is set to be scrutinised closely tonight as Manchester United welcome Brighton to Old Trafford.

The Reds are without a win in three matches and have kept just one clean sheet across their last six, causing unrest amongst United fans.

A large portion of their frustrations have been aimed towards Maguire who has been accused of performing at a below-par level for much of the campaign so far.

This has led to calls for the defender to be dropped and stripped of the club captaincy by manager Ralf Rangnick, yet for now, the German seems unwilling to make such a drastic decision.

Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s clash, Rangnick said: "I think when he came back after his injury he did extremely well. He had a very good performance, a very good game against West Ham.

"In the past two games, 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."

So far throughout this turbulent season, Maguire has been one of United’s most consistent players in terms of appearances, with only Bruno Fernandes and David De Gea accumulating more Premier League minutes.

However, the underlying numbers point to a player that has rarely excelled. Although he’s come out on top in 67.71 per cent of his defensive league duels this season, that ranks only 23rd from the 53 central defenders who have played over 1000 minutes.

In terms of aerial duels won, his success rate of 63.64% ranks him a much better tenth in that same group of players.

Yet, even so, it’s a notably inferior success rate to teammate Raphael Varane who coincidently ranks top across the division in this area with a success rate of 72.41%. Maguire’s output in