Man United Q&A: What is the latest on Harry Maguire? Plus the updates on Antony and Jadon Sancho as Chris Wheeler answers all of your questions

CHRIS WHEELER: That wasn’t great, was it?!

To be fair to United, they could never have imagined Varane and Shaw facing long layoffs so early in the season, then losing Martinez and Lindelof to injury and illness at Arsenal.

Ideally, Maguire and Evans would play alongside one of the other four rather than together.

The fact that they are both in their 30s now and were Leicester’s central defensive partnership several years ago is not ideal for United given the club spent £400m on new players under Ten Hag.

But Lindelof is fit again and will play against Brighton, and hopefully Martinez will be available even if he didn’t play for Argentina.

Once Varane is back and Shaw – who has done well at centre-back under Ten Hag – everything should be fine.

CHRIS WHEELER: No news, Andy.

This is a tricky situation given the buyout situation. Clearly, the Glazers would prefer to pass the £2bn bill for the redevelopment of Old Trafford to the new owners rather than pay it themselves. But with no end in sight to the takeover saga, everything is up in the air.

Senior planners have been appointed and action is being taken behind the scenes. But it’s possible that the Glazers could delay the sale of the club for a few more years, so that’s a difficult question to answer.

But you are right. The new Bernabeu is magnificent. United are lagging behind other big clubs and that must be a cause for concern.

CHRIS WHEELER: Ten Hag has a few options unavailable, assuming the frost hasn’t thawed his relationship with Sancho by Saturday.

You are correct in your assumptions. It seems too early for Pellistri, even though he has an exciting talent.

I think it would also be unfair to put him in the spotlight when there will be so much scrutiny on what Ten Hag is doing on the right wing after what happened with Sancho and Antony.

Playing Garnacho on the left and switching Rashford to the right would make sense. The same would go for Bruno on the right, where he has often performed well for United. This would allow Eriksen to move into the No.10 role and Amrabat or McTominay to partner Casemiro in midfield.

Mount could also fit into the No.10/right wing equation if he is fit.

CHRIS WHEELER: I think you could see from Hojlund’s appearance on the Arsenal bench and the video of him with the megaphone after Denmark beat Finland this week, that United feel like they are having a player with enormous character.

For someone so young, he is very confident and combative – and Arsenal’s defense can attest to that.

He is also very fast (his mother was a sprinter and he can do the 100m in less than 11 seconds), which is surprising for someone so tall.

Sure, he’s a bit brutal and unproven in the Premier League. It will take time, but United will hope their decision to choose Hojlund over Harry Kane proves good in the long term.

It’s just a worry that they have to face Kane and Bayern Munich so early in the season!

CHRIS WHEELER: Mainoo has been out for a while again, which is a shame because he looked really good on tour.

His injury was one of the reasons why United found it necessary to loan Amrabat as an additional central midfielder after Fred left the club.

Despite withdrawing from international duty due to injury, Amrabat has been able to train this week and could be involved against Brighton.

CHRIS WHEELER: I think there are two different issues here. 1. Utd/England fans are giving Maguire a hard time. 2. Ten Hag’s perspective on the player.

On the first issue, I really think this needs to stop and the fans need to support Maguire. Whatever your opinion of him, like Sancho he can’t go anywhere until January at the earliest, so it makes sense to back him. Booing your own player is never a good idea, whether he plays for United or England.

His relationship with Ten Hag is more complex. The manager continues to say the right things about the opportunities Maguire has, but his decisions say otherwise.

Ten Hag clearly doesn’t want to put Maguire in the starting lineup and in that sense, it was absolutely the right decision to hand Fernandes the captaincy.

I think it would have been in everyone’s best interests if he had moved to West Ham in the summer, but that didn’t happen and United’s injury problems in defense mean he might play more than expected.

But long term, no, I don’t see much action yet.

CHRIS WHEELER: I still think there is a way to go with Sancho. Evidently, he deleted the offending post that was pinned on his social media account, and this was seen as a positive first step – but not a panacea.

Talks took place between Ten Hag and Sancho on Monday and they must rebuild trust in their relationship if that is possible. Director of football John Murtough is trying to negotiate some kind of peace deal.

The problem is that Sancho does not arrive in a position of strength. Ten Hag supported him through three difficult months over Christmas last year and didn’t really see the rewards on the pitch.

United reportedly let him leave for £45m this summer – and even on loan to Saudi Arabia last week if the deal went through – so his future at Old Trafford is still far from certain beyond that of January.

Almost ready to go… still time to ask your questions

The Frenchman therefore arrived for the second time at training today… this time he succeeded with the first team training which is due to start early in the afternoon.

The Opta supercomputer didn’t like what it saw in the first few games.

Discover their reasoning here…

Here are some of the big talking points this week:

• What’s going on with Jadon Sancho and Erik ten Hag’s relationship?
• Harry Maguire review: Is there any way back to United for him as he continually plays for England?
• Still no news on takeover bids
• Possible home debuts this weekend for Rasmus Hojlund and Sofyan Amrabat

There are still 30 minutes until our chief Manchester United reporter, CHRIS WHEELER, joins the Q&A session for your questions.

Use the comments section or this social media post to submit your question.

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But how do their league rivals compare?

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But there was a logical explanation for why.

Well, it’s never a dull day when it comes to Manchester United.

Already today, Anthony Martial suffered a misstep on the training pitch, while Harry Maguire’s family members launched into harsh criticism of his performances in recent months.

Our man CHRIS WHEELER will be on hand to answer all your burning United questions from 1 p.m.