“He has to…” Erik ten Hag told he MUST drop Manchester United star vs Aston Villa

Erik ten Hag has been informed he must look to drop one of his Manchester United stars as the club prepare to face Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon.

Manchester United are set to return to Premier League action as they look to face Aston Villa away from home in their seventh game of the league season.

Erik ten Hag‘s men have been on a dire run of form, winning just three of their ten fixtures so far this campaign. Most recently, they blew a 2-0 lead away from home against FC Porto, needing a last-minute header from Harry Maguire to salvage a 3-3 draw.

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While the Manchester outfit sits 13th in the league table, Aston Villa are flying under Unai Emery, sitting 5th in the league and just two points from Liverpool in first.

Most recently, the Birmingham side hosted Bayern Munich in the Champions League, beating the German giants 1-0 thanks to a fantastic goal from substitute Jhon Duran.

As the Villa tie approaches, former United midfielder Owen Hargreaves has called for Ten Hag to drop Matthijs de Ligt in place of Maguire for the fixture.

“Harry will play at the weekend against Villa. I think he’ll have to,” Hargreaves explained on TNT Sports after the game.

“De Ligt struggled today, Samu [Omorodion, who netted a brace for Porto] is a super explosive and powerful player, but Ollie Watkins, Jhon Duran… that’s not going to get any easier. So he’s got some big calls to make.”

Hargreaves then went on to blast United’s overall sloppy defending in Portugal. “There was a lot going on,” he explained. “There were so many holes defensively.

“Manchester United didn’t stop any crosses, and then to go 3-2 down after being 2-0 up was ridiculous. The middle part of the game was crazy. That’s what it’s been like for a couple of years.”

Karen Carney, former Arsenal and Chelsea winger, also didn’t mince her words, critiquing: “Manchester United fell apart. At 2-2, we were massively fearing for Manchester United. Lisandro Martinez and Matthijs de Ligt were really, really poor tonight, and Casemiro as well.”

United will travel to face Aston Villa at their home ground on Sunday afternoon. Ten Hag has won four of his five meetings against Unai Emery, including both Premier League fixtures last season.

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