Nemanja Matic has stepped up and described the trolling of England and Manchester United centre-back Harry Maguire as a ‘disaster’.
The ex United and current Roma midfielder insisted that the people who are irresponsibly targeting his former team-mate on social media ‘don’t have their own lives’.
Maguire lost his place in defence under new gaffer Erik ten Hag this season but was still called up by Gareth Southgate – who had incidentally received a lot of flak from England fans for this decision in favoring the defender over in-form Jadon Sancho – and featured in England’s 1-0 defeat to Italy on Friday.
Numerous Three Lions fans did not hesitate to show their disapproval of Maguire and booed the £80million Red Devils star against Ivory Coast in March and some have gone on to hurl abuse at him on social media.
Matic, having previously spent three seasons at Old Trafford with the centre-half, has since taken the perpetrators to task.
‘What people are doing to him, it is a disaster,’ Matic told The Times.
‘Everything has to have limits and some of these people writing on social media, they don’t have their own lives, so they just have to write bad things about someone else.’
Maguire featured in two totally lackluster performances during Manchester United’s opening two defeats of the season against Brighton and Brentford, subsequently losing his place to the new Ten Hag-preferred defensive pairing of Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez, which has actually worked out much better for the Red Devils.
Ten Hag’s side have since carved out four successive league victories without the 29-year-old in the starting line-up, triumphing against Liverpool, Southampton, Leicester and Arsenal to climb to fifth in the division.
Seemingly unperturbed despite receiving a glut of online abuse from a selection of supporters, Maguire told talkSPORT: ‘I am all good, ready to play, I feel fit and fresh.
‘On my form, I don’t know what has been said, I don’t really read about it. I came off the back of three positive games with England in the summer, and a good pre-season. I felt really good.
‘Obviously, the manager decided to leave me out for a game, and the team have been winning since.
‘I am working hard on the training pitch to make sure I am ready for when my opportunity comes. That is all that I can do to try and help the team. I am not concentrating on anybody else and what people are saying.’