Rio Ferdinand criticises Manchester United captain Harry Maguire following Burnley draw
Former Manchester United centre-back Rio Ferdinand has accused club captain Harry Maguire of producing too many below-par performances this season following Tuesday evening's 1-1 draw against Burnley at Turf Moor.
Maguire's defensive error contributed to Jay Rodriguez being allowed to haul Burnley level just two minutes into the start of the second half.
Maguire failed to get close enough to Wout Weghorst, allowing the Burnley striker to play a reverse pass into Rodriguez, who moved the ball across the recovering United captain, before firing past David de Gea.
His effort, which marked the 100th league goal of his career, cancelled out Paul Pogba's first-half opener, meaning United were forced to settle for a point.
Maguire, who has started each of United's last three games in all competitions after being temporarily dropped by interim manager Ralf Rangnick, has been guilty of producing several poor performances this term, and Ferdinand has questioned if the former Leicester City man is experiencing a hangover from the European Championship last summer, which, of course, saw England go all the way to the final.
"I think he'll be disappointed," Ferdinand told BT Sport, reflecting on Maguire's second half showing. "In the first half he looked assured, him and Raphael Varane were very assured as a partnership.
"They were the dominating team, but in the second half the team didn't come out at the races.
"At places like Burnley, where second half the crowd will be up for it, that first five minutes in the second half is as important as any, because they can get one goal then it's an avalanche; the crowd's up and it will be a tough, tough evening.
"You can make it easy by doing the basics right and they didn't do that;