- Harry Maguire held United’s players accountable amid the club’s dismal form
- He said the squad must ‘stop looking for excuses’ and improve immediately
- LISTEN NOW: It’s All Kicking Off! Ruben Amorim looks desperate… it’s a last resort to publicly out your players
Harry Maguire believes the players have to take responsibility for their performances after head coach Ruben Amorim labelled them ‘the worst team maybe in the history of Manchester United’.
Maguire was sat alongside Amorim at Carrington on Wednesday lunchtime as the United boss admitted that frustration got the better of him after Sunday’s defeat to Brighton.
But the England defender insisted that the players have to take their fair share of the blame too for not having the right mind-set for 90 minutes.
‘If I could explain it, I think we’d change it straightaway,’ said Maguire. ‘These players who have won lots of trophies in club football, but we’re not playing well enough as a team. We’ve got to stop looking for excuses and blaming things. It’s really important we improve.
‘As players, after the game we were really frustrated and disappointed. We were confident we could beat Brighton but we didn’t perform well enough. We have to take responsibility ourselves. I go home and think about where we want to get back to: players taking responsibility and improving individually.
‘We spoke about the first goal at Old Trafford and it’s not that teams are coming to Old Trafford and opening us up. It was a 50-50 game against Brighton which could have gone either way, and we gave them a goal early on that we know we needed to stop.
Harry Maguire admitted that Man United players need to take responsibility for their poor form
He revealed that the squad were frustrated after losing 3-1 to Brighton on Sunday but need to stop ‘looking for excuses’ if they wish to turn around their miserable season and improve
Ruben Amorim has had a rough start at United, winning just three of his 11 league games so far
‘We spoke about in pre match. We have to stop giving away that first goal. The first goal against Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth was a set-play. These aren’t things that are tactically a problem, they are things when you have to go into the game and be focused and mentally ready to go on and win football matches.
‘Football matches are sometimes decided on fine margins and at the moment we’re not getting those small margins because we’re not mentally focused to make sure we go the whole way.’
Maguire also revealed that he sent a message of support to Joshua Zirkzee after United fans cheered when their summer signing was substituted in the defeat to Newcastle at Old Trafford earlier this month.
Maguire has had to win over supporters during his career and is pleased that Zirkzee has redeemed himself in the eyes of many fans since then. ‘I sent him a message privately after the game,’ he added.
‘He’s a good player. You don’t play for this club if you’re not a good player. With Josh coming on against Arsenal, he really changed the game for us and to score the penalty (in the shootout) it probably gave him the confidence and belief that he belongs here.
‘There are so many ups and downs. Every game you lose, there’s a lot of scrutiny and that’s part and parcel of playing for this club. I look at previous players, the likes of Beckham and Rooney had a lot of scrutiny. If it can happen to them, it can happen to anyone.’
