by 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 into Sunday’s crucial trip to Aston Villa.
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United are looking to bounce back from last weekend’s demoralizing 3-0 defeat to Tottenham in the Premier League at Old Trafford and allow a 2-0 lead over Porto in the Europa League to become a 3-2 deficit, before the Maguire’s equalizer in added time. .
The Dutchman is under pressure with United with seven points after six matches. Under Ten Hag, they have scored three goals in 24 games, the most of any top team in the last 26 months.
“It’s obviously not enough,” the United defender said. “As a footballer it’s easy to look around and blame others and blame your teammate, the staff or the tactics. You have to look at yourself.
“We are the ones who go out into the field. We are the ones who must defend. You must take responsibility. And each of us must do better in these moments. When we’re under pressure, I feel like as a team, over the last year, we’ve finally conceded and that can’t happen.
“We must be able to withstand this pressure. Have better principles within us. We need to pick up the pace when we defend our area much better.
Last season, United beat Unai Emery’s side 2-1 at Villa Park. “We need to take inspiration from what we did there last season,” Maguire said. “There was a fire there [Villa’s form]. Then we went for the victory. And we feel like we’re playing better than last season.
“The results are not there. The performance was really poor against Spurs. Other than that, I feel like we should have more points on the board. But that’s not the case, so we have to do something from 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 left out by Lee Carsley for England’s upcoming Nations League matches against Greece and Finland, despite being chosen in caretaker manager’s first team for internationals of September. But after speaking with Carsley, the centre-back understands the wish to evaluate 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 played really well against Ireland. There’s no hiding from it. I was a little surprised. But obviously I support his decision and he told me I was part of the future. So we’ll see what happens in November. I had a conversation this morning and he talked about his reasons. He told me that I was an integral part of the future. He wants to see the other guys play in this camp. And he doesn’t want to take me if I don’t start either match, which is fair enough. I’m going to go and rest.
