Harry Maguire has admitted that he and fellow centre-back Lisandro Martinez want to test themselves in situations like the one that developed towards the end of Manchester United's 1-0 win over West Ham United at the end of last month.
After Marcus Rashford had netted his 100th goal in United colours shortly before half-time to put the Reds in front, Erik ten Hag's side faced an attacking bombardment in the second half. West Ham went up through the gears and started to pepper the United goal as the clock ticked towards the 90-minute mark.
It required goalkeeper David de Gea to pull off a string of fine saves, the best of which denied Kurt Zouma and then England international Declan Rice, while the defenders in front of him put their bodies on the line to preserve the Spaniard's clean sheet. Diogo Dalot, Maguire and Martinez all excelled in the situation, not least Dalot, who produced more than one excellent headed clearance to deny Michail Antonio what looked like being certain goals.
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Although no team wants to be under so much pressure when trying to protect a 1-0 lead, Maguire, who has not started since the victory over the Hammers, has confessed that he enjoys such scenarios, as does Martinez, who has flourished since joining United during the summer transfer window.
"As a centre-back, and a centre-back who likes to defend the box, it's really – the last 20 minutes [against West Ham] - are really enjoyable," Maguire told United Review, the club's matchday programme. "Although they are really tense, it's something that me and Licha [Martinez] were speaking about, they're the moments you want to play for.
"You want to defend, you want to hold on to that clean sheet, do everything you can to keep the ball out of the back of the net and I think we did it really well in the last 20 minutes. Obviously, we want to play a little bit better and keep the ball better than we did in the last 20-25 minutes.
"I felt like we had good control of the game for the first 70 minutes and we lost it a little bit in the last 20. So it's something that we'll work on, that we won't need to defend that many corners or free-kicks, but yes, for sure, as a centre-back that's what you enjoy, that's what you want to do.
"You want to defend and come out and keep a clean sheet and win 1-0. 1-0s are always the best for a centre-back."
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