MANCHESTER UNITED boss Erik ten Hag reportedly claims Harry Maguire is the club's fifth-choice center-back and wish England start to fight.



Maguire has seen his game time limited this season due to the strong partnership of Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez. When either of the pair has not played, the likes of Victor Lindelof or full-back Luke Shaw have been preferred in the position ahead of Maguire in some recent games.

But the Man United manager pull up the claim of him being fifth in the pecking order and urged the England defender to fight for his place in the team. He told reporters: "He’s not our fifth choice. Harry has to fight for his position and things can change  sometimes also really quickly. I think he is making progress and it’s up to him now." Shaw missed the Carabao Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest and remains 50-50 for the FA Cup clash against Reading tonight.

This means Ten Hag has no natural left-sided center halves asides from Martinez, who he will no doubt want to give a rest where he can. This means Maguire could step back into the left-sided role despite being placed more typically on the right this season.

Instead, Lindelof could simply be swapped into the left sided role, though he prefers to play on the right side too. Further up the pitch, fellow citizen Jadon Sancho is improving after returning to first-team training following a prolonged absence.

On the 22-year-old's return, Ten Hag said: "He is training with the team & we will see when he can return to play minutes. He's improving, he's making steps & we will make the decision after the training." Should he feature at all, Sancho will more likely see a role from the bench than from the start of the clash at Old Trafford.