“Ridiculous” – Manchester United defender Harry Maguire reveals how he was able to cope all the bad criticism at Man United because of his perfomance

Even though Harry Maguire wasn’t used much in Erik ten Hag’s first year as manager, he worked his way back into his plans this season.

Harry Maguire thinks that Manchester United players should be able to handle tight protection if they want to play for the team.

The center back has had a rough few years, and the £80 million United paid Leicester to sign him in the summer of 2019 has followed him around.

In 2021/22, Maguire lost a lot of his form, and when Erik ten Hag took over as manager the next summer, Maguire fell down the list of central defenders.

At the end of Ten Hag’s first year as manager, he took Maguire’s captaincy away. It looked like Maguire would be leaving, and West Ham made an offer to sign him.

But Maguire stayed and fought to get back into Ten Hag’s plans, which shows how tough he is.

“First and foremost, it’s a huge honour and an immense honor to play for a club with so much history,” Maguire said. “I love playing for this big club.”

It’s very important to me, and I go through a lot of ups and downs. Everyone knows that. It’s hard because our club is the most talked about in the world, at least in this country. You need to get used to that.

“You need to handle it. For yourself, you shouldn’t think about it too much. During the week, you should take care of yourself and prepare as much as you can.

“Then you feel good about going to the game.” You feel ready to handle the stress of playing for such a famous and large club because of your training.

Maguire, a leader in the locker room, talked about how United’s young players have helped: “They’ve come into the team during a really tough season—we’ve had our problems.”

They came in because we haven’t been winning as many games as we should at this club because of the crazy number of injuries we’ve had. It hasn’t been the best atmosphere. They’ll be stronger and better after this. They’ll go far at this club.