Harry Maguire or David De Gea? Failure by calamitous goal of Sevilla divides opinions

Manchester United captain Harry Maguire was involved in another calamitous moment against Sevilla as the Premier League side fell behind in the Europa League quarter-final, but the England international was quickly defended by Gary Neville and Robbie Savage, who said David De Gea was to blame. .

After scoring a late own goal in last week’s 2-2 draw at Old Trafford, Maguire failed again as United conceded the opener within the first 10 minutes of the second leg at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán.

After receiving a pass from goalkeeper De Gea just outside the box, Maguire was quickly surrounded by three Sevilla attackers, with former Tottenham striker Erik Lamela recovering the ball on the edge. He then passed it to striker Youssef En-Nesyri, who got past De Gea to put Sevilla ahead in the tie.

Initially, Maguire appeared to be at fault, but former United captain Neville argued that De Gea should never have passed the ball to the defender. He tweeted: “Maguire will get hit but I wouldn’t like that pass from DeGea!”

On BT Sport, Savage also argued that De Gea was at fault with his pass from behind. The commentator said that De Gea should “never” pass the ball to Maguire, given the proximity of the Sevilla strikers around him.

“I don’t think Maguire wants that pass,” Savage said. “It’s a mistake by De Gea.”

However, another angle of the goal also showed Maguire calling for the ball with his back to goal, before De Gea decided to pass it inside.

Former United midfielders Paul Scholes and Owen Hargreves also criticized United’s play in goal.

“Just get rid of it. I can only think of one or two centre-backs in world football who would want the ball in that position,” Scholes said. “Harry Maguire is not one of them.”

United were missing the injured Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martínez, who have been Erik ten Hag’s first-choice centre-backs this season.