Dimitar Berbatov: Harry Maguire abuse has gone on too long

• Maguire abuse is unprecedented

• Southgate is right to stand by defender

• Fergie would have sold Sancho

I agree with Gareth Southgate that every player has difficult moments and Harry Maguire is going through one.

You can see that the England manager really likes Maguire. He's picking the defender, even though he is not playing for Man United, or just coming on as a substitute.

This is a good thing for Maguire, as it will lift his self-belief and his confidence. I can't think of a player in recent years who has ttake as much stick and abuse as Harry is getting.

Maguire is a good player

I can sympathise, particularly as a former player because everyone has difficult moments, where you don't play well.

In the case of Harry, the abuse has been going on for too long. Southgate likes him as a player - and he is a good player - and he is trying to help him by calling him up to the national team, and trying to tell him that he counts on him. He was also wearing the armband when Harry Kane came off.

It shows that the national manager trusts in him, and this is one of the things that will help him get through the difficult situation that he is in.

There are people judging Southgate's decision, asking why he is playing people who are not playing regularly for their team. He is still calling them up to the national team, while there are players who are playing for their teams that are not being called up.

There will always be debates about why a national manager is calling up someone who is not playing in their team. Southgate is showing faith in Maguire, and he is for sure speaking to Harry privately and offering him support.

Maguire can't afford any mistakes

If he gets the chance to play from the first minute for United, then Maguire will be playing for his career. He cannot make any mistakes. Whenever he makes a mistake, he will be making his situation even worse.

He should play it simple, with one or two touches. He should try not to overdo stuff, but it starts with if he will be given the chance to play. He will need the trust of the manager.

Ferguson would have sold Sancho

I will not be surprised if Sancho struggles to get game time for United from here.

Players sometimes think they are really important and they can change something when they speak publicly. In reality, they only make the situation worse. In this case, I did not like what happened, and Sancho should have gone directly to Erik ten Hag and spoken to him man to man.

Things could go either way now. If the manager likes you as a player, even if you make mistakes along the way, it will be easier for him to forgive you, keep you around and continue to give you another chance.

If he doesn't like you, then the situation becomes difficult. You will need to work even harder to get back into the team.

Had Jadon Sancho done this when Sir Alex Ferguson was the manager, then he would have been out, because no one is bigger than the team.

Ten Hag has shown that he can be strong when he needs to be, like in the case with Ronaldo. This manager stands his ground, he knows what he wants and can sacrifice big stars. He is not afraid to get his hands dirty in situations like this because he is the manager, the guy in charge, and has the authority.

Ten Hag has the right to speak about why he made certain decisions. If Sancho did not train well, then that is why he was out of the team. Sancho should not have gone public on social media and instead should have gone directly to the manager's office, and said that he was giving everything and will do better next time.

He should have kept it inside instead of blowing it out of proportion, because now we are speaking about this rather than football.

I always talked with my managers

I had disagreements with managers, especially at United when I wasn't playing. I'd go to Sir Alex's office because his door was always open to players, and I would ask him why I was not playing when I was training well and scoring goals. I wanted to know what I could do better.

You go in to challenge the manager, but you do it face to face. If you do that, you also get even more respect because you go and face the problem yourself, and you speak to the manager.

We are all human beings, we are emotional and we want to tell everybody that something is going on. You want everybody to know that you are having a hard time and you believe you are being treated unfairly, so you want to speak.

I understand it, but most of the time the best way to deal with it will be to speak with the manager man to man, and see if you can find the right solution to the problem.

It was daunting at times when I had to go and speak to Sir Alex. However, when you are desperate for answers you have no other options. The manager's door needs to be open 24/7 to all players, no matter what you are going through. If you need to speak with the boss, then you need to go to him.

Harry Kane wasn't having a dig at Spurs

Harry Kane is not the sort of player who would have a dig at other teams, especially Spurs. I don't think he meant any disrespect towards Spurs by praising Bayern Munich's "top class mentality" - he was just expressing what he was seeing at Bayern.

If we look closely at what he was saying, he was talking about the biggest club in Germany. Of course, every season they will be expected to win something because they are the biggest club. It's normal. There will always be pressure to win trophies there, and it is the same as it was at United back in the day as well.

Every time you fail to win something you get used to it, and that is what has happened at Tottenham.

Kane is right. At the really big clubs, there is pressure to win because those clubs make a habit of winning all the time. Now the pressure is on him to help Bayern win because everyone expects it.

Spurs to Untied was big step up for me

When I moved from Spurs to United there was a big difference. Straight away I went into a team that was building a legacy of winning trophies year after year.

The manager was a legend, so you feel that you need to win from the start, and no one needs to say anything. You can see from the start that when you don't win, the disappointment is there because the team is good enough and you know you need to win.

The change from Spurs to United was big, but it was all part of the winning mentality. United had built a team of winners over decades which was not easy, and we had to continue that winning legacy.

Of course, you can lose the winning mentality along the way. Spurs back in the day were winning stuff under Bill Nicholson, but then they lost that mentality. They need to get it back.

With United, the mentality was being built for so long, but now they have lost the winning mentality because they have not won the league for 10 years.