Harry Maguire has urged his teammates not to blame Erik ten Hag for Manchester United’s poor form but to take personal responsibility, as they head for Sunday’s pivotal trip to Aston Villa.
United are looking to bounce back from last weekend’s demoralising 3-0 loss to Tottenham in the Premier League at Old Trafford and allowing a 2-0 lead over Porto in the Europa League to become a 3-2 deficit, before Maguire’s equaliser in added time.
The Dutchman is under pressure with United on seven points after six matches. Under Ten Hag, they have shipped three goals in 24 games, the most of any top-flight side in the past 26 months.
“Obviously it’s not good enough,” said the United defender. “As a footballer it’s easy to look around and blame other people and blame your teammate or the staff or tactics. You’ve got to look at yourself.
“We’re the ones that go on the pitch. We’re the ones that have to defend. You’ve got to take responsibility. And every one of us has to do better in these moments. When we’re under pressure, I feel as a team over the last year or so, we’ve ended up conceding and that can’t happen.
“We’ve got to be able to withstand that pressure. Have better principles within ourselves. We’ve got to up the tempo when we’re defending our box a lot better.”
Last season United beat Unai Emery’s side 2-1 at Villa Park. “We’ve got to take belief from what we did last season there,” said Maguire. “It was on fire there [Villa’s form]. Then we went and got the victory. And we feel like we’re playing better than we were last season.
“The results haven’t been there. The performance was really poor against Spurs. Apart from that, I feel like we should have more points on the board. But they’re not, so we need to do something about it starting with Sunday. It’s a tough game but what a great place to go, play football and try to get three points.”
Maguire admits surprise at being dropped by Lee Carsley for England’s upcoming Nations League games against Greece and Finland despite being chosen for the interim manager’s first squad for the September internationals. But after talking with Carsley the centre-back understands the wish to assess John Stones, Marc Guéhi, Ezri Konsa and Levi Colwill instead, and hopes to be involved next month.
Maguire said: “I played in his first game in charge and I did really well against Ireland. There’s no hiding from that. I was a little bit surprised. But obviously I back his decision and he’s told me I’m part of the future. So we’ll see what comes in November. I’ve had a chat this morning and he spoke about his reasons. He told me I’m a big part of the future. He wants to see the other lads playing in this camp. And doesn’t want to take me if I’m not going to start either game, which is fair enough. I’ll go away, get some rest.”
