Harry Maguire was mainly blamed for the goal Manchester United conceded against Burnley in the midweek.
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Manchester United head into the weekend test against Southampton on the back of two underwhelming results. United dominated proceedings against Middlesbrough in the FA Cup and Burnley in the Premier League, but were only able to draw them both 1-1. Infact, in the FA Cup, the Reds went on to lose the game in the penalty shootout. In both games, United were excellent in the first half, but failed to live up to that level in the second period. Harry Maguire was mainly blamed for the goal United conceded against Burnley in the midweek. This is the latest in a long line of criticisms Maguire has received from fans and pundits this season.
In the pre-match press conference, interim manager Ralf Rangnick backed Harry Maguire to rediscover his form and also explained the reasons behind those draws. Speaking about Maguire, Rangnick said, “Well, I think he had an outstanding game against West Ham, like all the rest of our backline. Against Middlesbrough, we didn’t give away that many chances to the other team and at Burnley, yes, we could have defended that transitional moment better than we did but, in the end, it was a negative chain reaction like in most goals that teams conceded.”
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“We had a brilliant counterattack ourselves, the first pass was not the best one but even then, it was still a 2v2 or 3v3 situation and we should have got more out of that. And then our [the] rest [of our] defence was not really good, we should not have allowed this counterattack to happen, we were not marking or connecting players well enough and high enough.”
“And also we didn’t transition at the end so when they got the ball, we were 2v1, with Harry and Scotty against him, and of course, we shouldn’t have allowed him to go through in that very moment, but, yeah, that can happen. As I said, Harry was injured, he had two and a half weeks out with injury, then he came back, had a very good game against West Ham and I’m pretty sure he can perform at the same kind of level against Southampton.”
Rangnick was then asked about how to get the best out of his star forward Cristiano Ronaldo. “Yeah, but it’s not only about Cristiano Ronaldo. That he should score more goals is obvious. I think we’re creating enough chances and opportunities in the last couple of games, but we just didn’t score enough goals, but this is not only just an issue with Cristiano, it’s also an issue with all the other players, especially the offensive players, that we do not score enough goals if you bear in mind how many chances we create,” he explained.
“This is also something that needs to get better in the next couple of weeks. But, as I say, what we played in the first half and even at Burnley, I would say in 70 of those 90 minutes, was very, very close to the game plan that we have spoken about before the game and now it’s about rewarding ourselves and getting all the results that we should have deserved.”
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