Manchester United club captain Harry Maguire has given his verdict of the win over West Ham and what him and Lisandro Martinez enjoy about a match.
The Englishman has fallen out of favour under Erik ten Hag largely due to the arrival of Martinez, as well as the form of Raphael Varane. Maguire started United’s opening two matches of the Premier League game, in which the team conceded six goals in total.
Since then Ten Hag utilised both Martinez and Varane as first-choice centre-back partnership, with Maguire being demoted to the bench. When the Frenchman sustained an injury against Chelsea, Victor Lindelof was deployed alongside the Argentinian.
United then had a stroke of bad luck again as Lindelof took ill before the West Ham game on October 29, leaving a space for Maguire to retain his place in the starting eleven for the first time since August.
A first-half goal from Marcus Rashford sealed the three points for the Reds, however, a tightly contested second half meant a nail-biter for the fans in the closing stages of the game.
Maguire reflects on Irons win
Regarding the cagey affair, the 29-year-old told United Review: “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. Although they are really tense, it’s something 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 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 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.”
