Six months after joining Man Utd, Harry Maguire made club captain

Manchester United coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has confirmed that Harry Maguire will captain the club. The GBP 80 million signing joined United six months ago from Leicester City, making him the most expensive defender in the world.

Ashley Young was named club captain at the start of the season, but now he has agreed to join Inter Milan for GBP 1.5 million and is set to undergo a medical on Friday.

In an interview to Sky Sports, Solskjaer said, “He (Young) is 35 in the summer and if he gets a two-year contract somewhere it's up to him to take that. We weren't ready to offer that. He's been a good servant for the club, he's been captain, he's won trophies. But we've got players coming through.”

He added, “Harry has been wearing the captain's armband and he will keep wearing it. He's come in and been a leader in the group. I've been impressed by his leadership skills. Everything about him tells me he's a leader. He's part of a group that we've had that have been leading this young group."

Maguire will wear the captain’s armband for the first time as United’s permanent captain when they face table-toppers Liverpool on Sunday.

On the Liverpool fixture, Solskjaer has said that United can take inspiration from the last two times that they have faced the Merseyside club at Old Trafford. He said, “The last two performances at Old Trafford we have drawn twice and been close to winning both games, so we’ve got some games to look back at and that will give us loads of belief and on the game if we perform to our best we have a chance to win.”

Manchester United are currently fifth on the points table of the English Premier League, just five points below fourth-placed Chelsea. United will face Liverpool on Sunday at Anfield. Liverpool top the table with 14 points above the second-placed Manchester City with a game in hand. So far, Liverpool have dropped points in just one match. That was against Manchester United at Old Trafford on 20th October 2019.