Former defender Jaap Stam says Harry Maguire has become ‘an easy target’ and believes it is up to his club teammates to make life easier for him.
Maguire has endured a torrid campaign at Old Trafford and despite maintaining his form at international level, was booed by a section of England supporters during this week’s international break.
The United captain has faced calls to be stripped of the armband with Jamie Carragher suggesting this week the skipper lacks ‘authority’ in the United dressing room – which is in turn affecting his performances on the pitch.
Treble-winner Stam however believes Maguire can emerge a better player from this troubled spell.
‘He’s an easy target because it’s easy to say that he is making mistakes or wrong choices,’ Stam told .
‘Everybody, even when I played, I made mistakes, I made wrong choices as well.
‘I think for him, and that’s what I meant, by what I said before, he also needs to have help from his teammates. He also needs to have the confidence of people around him and they will have for him. But also from outside as well, so he can make these steps.
‘I’ve seen him play before as well when he was at Leicester, and he played good games.
‘Yeah, sometimes now, when you see him play, he doesn’t look confident at times or not making the right decision. But that’s also part of a player and his career path.
‘Sometimes you get ups and downs, you play well, and then you go down a little bit. But it’s about how you pick yourself up to become a steady player.’
Stam added it is up to the players around Maguire; namely United’s goalkeeper, the full-backs and the options in front of him in midfield, to communicate better and offer better options off the ball for their teammate.
‘And I think for him, they (his teammates) need to help him out as well. They need to tell him as well what he needs to do, and how he needs to play.
‘He’s doing well within the national team as well when he plays. So he’s shown that he can play at a high level in the national team, not only for the country but also I think at Manchester United.
‘It’s easy for everybody to say that Messi or Ronaldo are great players because they score a lot of goals. Yeah, when a player is not doing well. It’s also easy to say, ‘he’s not doing well’, or ‘he’s not performing well, so you need to make a different choice’.
‘No, it’s about letting people say, ‘okay, what do you need to tell the player, so he becomes a better player?’. And that means individually and give him a few pointers that make it easier for him to become a better player.
‘And now we’re talking specifically about Harry (Maguire) as an individual, but also the players around him. The midfield players and the other centre back, the two full backs and the goalkeeper. They also need to help him out, to give him more options on the ball or to take a better position so he feels maybe more comfortable defending.
‘So it’s not only about one thing, it’s about several things that need to come together to eventually come out on top.’
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