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Publication date: Sunday, November 8, 2020 9:15 AM
Manchester United captain Harry Maguire believes the criticism that is often directed so quickly at the club is rooted in jealousy.
Some of the pressure that was building up on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after two defeats in four days, including the Champions League embarrassment against Istanbul Basaksehir, was removed with a Victory 3-1 at Everton.
The first F365 winner: Solskjaer and his savior from Man Utd …
The victory avoided the ignominy of United’s worst start to a league season since 1989-90 and gave their manager some breathing space after coming under increasing scrutiny, but three victories in seven league games still leave the club in the bottom half of the table.
Maguire admits criticism is sometimes hard to ignore, but felt the Goodison Park performance gave them something to build on after the international hiatus.
“In this club, one thing that I have noticed in my time here, I have been here a year and a half, is that we are the most talked about club in the world,” he said.
“Why? Because we are the biggest club in the world. People don’t want us to do well. Why? Probably because of the success we’ve had in the past.
“We have to live up to that, we have to react and not let the negatives enter our bubble on the training ground. Sometimes it’s hard for guys. “
Speaking after the game in a video posted on Manchester United’s Twitter, the English international added: “We reacted well to two bad results. We felt we were on the right track after Leipzig (5-0 win) and we were disappointed against Arsenal (last Sunday).
“It wasn’t a good enough performance. On the week we again gave them a soft goal and it was too difficult for us to create opportunities to come back.
“We knew this was an important match to score three points. We reacted well, but it is only the beginning ”.
Maguire is one of the players who has found himself at the end of criticism for failing to live up to his status as the world’s most expensive defender so far following his £ 85 million move from Leicester in the summer of 2019.
However, he was praised by Solskjaer for his performance in the victory at Everton, which was achieved thanks to two goals from Bruno Fernandes who, instead, has had no trouble standing out since his arrival in January from Sporting Lisbon.
“I thought Harry’s performance was superior against, for me, one of the best in the world in passing game, (Dominic) Calvert-Lewin, with his timing in the air, his jump, his spring and his athleticism,” he said. United. boss.
“And I thought that we, as a baseline, defended ourselves very well against him. Very happy with Harry and the rest of them. “
Solskjaer may have been willing to praise the defense, there was no question that Fernandes is the man United are pinning their hopes of success on.
Not only did Portugal score two, one with a powerful header to equal Bernard’s first goal and the other a cross that hit the post after passing over Marcus Rashford, but also selflessly scored substitute Edinson Cavani’s first goal for the club at one stop. breakaway time where he could have gone for his hat-trick.
United looked better with Scott McTominay and Fred as their defensive midfielder pair (Paul Pogba was restricted to an eight-minute late cameo), but forward Anthony Martial was ineffective and is the only forward (who has played more than 90 minutes ) in the Premier League this season has failed to produce both a shot on goal and a single shot this season.
“Scott and Fred have done brilliantly together, they are a great partnership,” Solskjaer said.
“You could see they had cool legs. They had that energy in the engine room.
“They are always key for us, so our creative players can go ahead and create opportunities, show their magic.
“They are very disciplined and we are very happy with both of them.”
The only performance drawback was injuries, which the manager attributed to “Absolute joke” of programming his start at 12.30pm after Wednesday’s Champions League game, to Luke Shaw (hamstring), Rashford (shoulder) and Victor Lindelof (back).
It could well be the biggest weekend of the season so far. The two biggest title contenders will finally meet in a long-awaited meeting, but will Leicester or Wolves rise to the top? Liverpool also play Manchester City or something similar.
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