Both Harry Maguire and Lisandro Martinez received the ball in similar circumstances at different points during their Europa League run – but their contrasting reactions showed fans the difference in them
The clear difference between Harry Maguire and Lisandro Martinez was laid out for Manchester United fans on social media.
Martinez and Maguire were both given the ball by United keeper David de Gea at different times across their Europa League campaign. But the reactions of the defenders had two contrasting different outcomes, with Maguire’s response leading to a goal for Sevilla as the Red Devils were dumped out of the competition.
But Martinez coolly showed his defensive counterpart how it should’ve been handled against Real Betis when he calmly ushered the ball out of United’s box after De Gea passed it to him. After receiving the ball from De Gea, Martinez deftly skipped past one Betis star, before passing it to a team-mate, unlike Maguire who froze under pressure and gifted Sevilla with their first goal in their 3-0 win over United on Thursday night.
And fans were quick to highlight the difference in the centre-backs’ responses on Twitter. One fan declared: “you can’t compare Maguire and Licha. De Gea should have known this.”
A second fan, whilst attributing some of the blame to the United keeper, said: “Martinez is so sleek with the ball man but that can’t take away the fact that was a poor ball from De Gea … probably the worst gk at distribution.”
This was Martinez when De Gea gave him SAME PASS but let’s blame De Gea for Maguire’s zero football IQhttps://t.co/eW6lTkIzxA
— Amadeo Oluwaferanmi MUFC (@amadeobreezy) April 20, 2023
And a third fan commented: “Maguire has no business with football.” Then, a fourth user added in praise of Martinez: “See how one defender took out 3 attackers, all you need at times is ball-playing defenders.”
Maguire’s horror show, which came after his own goal in the first leg last week, led some fans to insist that his time is up at Old Trafford. And following De Gea’s blooper that resulted in Sevilla’s third goal, the raging supporters want the Spaniard gone this summer too.
SOURCE: dailystar.co.uk