Manchester United legend Gary Neville believes Harry Maguire has the credentials to become a key player for the Red Devils at the heart of the defence. The England international has made the headlines for the hefty £80m price tag in recent days, but that has not hampered him with a wonderful debut performance against Chelsea.
Speaking on Sky Sports, Neville praised the qualities of the former Leicester City defender and believes the defender has the qualities to become United’s very own Virgil van Dijk, he said: “Maguire looks secure and he looks strong. Every time the ball came near him in the air he won it and he never looked any different to how he was for England or Leicester. I think that was the main thing; coming here with a huge price tag in a big game as a Manchester United player for the first time it didn’t look like anything had changed. He has a really good temperament. It’s too early to say Maguire will make the same difference as Van Dijk, but there’s a chance.”
Maguire was slotted into the central defence alongside Victor Lindelof against Chelsea and the duo nearly conceded during the opening five minutes after a shot from Tammy Abraham hit the woodwork. Thereafter, Maguire became much more aware of the moment of the Blues striker and the youngster was eventually frustrated before Olivier Giroud was brought on without much success.
Elsewhere, United may have started the game on the back foot but they managed to open the scoring within the 18th minute after Marcus Rashford converted a penalty. In the second half, the Blues stepped up their performance with the eagerness to find the equaliser but that came to no avail with United making the most of the counter-attack to score three more goals. As such, United eventually won the game with a 4-0 score which has taken them to second on the table.