With the Premier League season now at a close, Manchester United will now be turning their attention toward Saturday's FA Cup final showdown with Manchester City, with Erik ten Hag and his men having the chance to cap what has already been a fine debut season in charge for the Dutchman.
With Champions League qualification having been clinched – as well as Carabao Cup glory – the aim for the Red Devils will be to end their season on an even greater high by stopping their treble-chasing rivals in their tracks.
Ahead of this weekend's mouthwatering showpiece meeting, one United man who looks unlikely to play a central role in proceedings is club captain, Harry Maguire, with the Englishman having largely been on the periphery this term after making just eight top-flight starts – the last of which came against Fulham on Sunday.
That outing against the Cottagers could well prove to be the 30-year-old's 'final start' for the club – as per GOAL's Richard Martin – with speculation mounting that the £80m addition could be among those to be shown the door by Ten Hag this summer.
While the season-ending injury to Lisandro Martinez had looked to have offered the former Leicester City man the chance of a more prominent role in recent weeks, the £190k-per-week dud has been usurped in the defensive pecking order by Victor Lindelof, with the impressive Swede likely to line up alongside Raphael Varane once again this weekend.
With even Luke Shaw – who started in a centre-back berth in the Manchester derby back in January – having been given the nod over Maguire at times this season, it is difficult to see where the 6 foot 4 brute goes from here…
Will Maguire play for Man United again?
The fact that the one-time Hull City man is set to be restricted to a potential late cameo appearance – if that – against Pep Guardiola's men is a stark indication of his decline, with the 55-cap asset having fallen by the wayside since making an early strong impression upon his arrival back in 2019.
The towering defender initially shone on debut in the 4-0 thrashing against Chelsea at the start of the 2019/20 campaign, with The Guardian's Andy Hunter writing at the time:
'A serene start to life as the world’s most expensive defender. Won every header, distributed cleanly and instigated the crucial second goal.'
Fast forward just under four years and Maguire now looks like a shadow of that once-dominant gem, having been described as a "walking disaster" by Manchester Evening News journalist Samuel Luckhurst amid a turbulent campaign for United last season.
As for the 2022/23 campaign, the ailing talent has been resigned to a role as third or fourth-choice centre-back at times, while failing to make his mark when he has featured, notably looking "lost" after starting in the FA Cup clash with Cottagers back in March, according to former MEN writer Hesham Bilal-Hefiz.
The experienced dud was also notably culpable in the dismal Europa League defeat away to Sevilla last month after gifting possession to the La Liga outfit in the build-up to the game's opening goal, having earlier scored an unfortunate own goal in the first-leg stalemate in Manchester.
Those woes have ensured that a departure now looks a mere certainty for Maguire, with Ten Hag himself having only recently stated that the skipper has a "decision" to make over his future, amid the "high competition" for places.
As such, it could well be that the weekend win over Marco Silva's side proves to be the last time the England regular is seen in a United jersey – aside from potentially holding the FA Cup trophy aloft on Saturday…
