Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag may be about to drop Harry Maguire for Monday night's Premier League game against Liverpool, according to Laurie Whitwell of The Athletic.

The lowdown

The Red Devils host their arch-rivals in their third game of the season and will go in search of their first points of the new campaign after defeats against Brighton and Brentford.

The £190,000-per-week Maguire has started both of those matches in a back four alongside summer signing Lisandro Martinez.

That has seen Raphael Varane, who joined from Real Madrid last summer in a £42m deal, beginning from the substitutes' bench on both occasions, being introduced at half-time against the Bees nine days ago.

However, one report has perhaps hinted at a possible changed in Erik ten Hag's back four tonight.

The latest

Whitwell writes for The Athletic that Varane has been training alongside Martinez in team shape sessions ahead of the match against Jurgen Klopp's side.

That seems to indicate that Ten Hag is very much 'weighing up a change' for the visit of Liverpool.

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The verdict

This would be a brave call from Ten Hag. After all, Maguire is the club captain and actually has the best WhoScored rating of any United player so far this term, and this is surely one of the team's biggest games of the season.

In the eyes of some journalists, though, this may be seen as the right call.

For instance, Josh Bunting has said that it 'baffles' him that Varane, who he dubbed 'the best defender Manchester United have by a long way' and a better 'leader' than Maguire, has been benched recently, believing that the Frenchman 'should be starting all day long'.

Meanwhile, Samuel Luckhurst noted that, 'to most outside MUFC', 'Martinez and Maguire did not look remotely like the winnings of a long-term partnership'.

Judging by Whitwell's report from Carrington, that partnership could be parked tonight, with Varane seemingly set for a recall at Maguire's expense.