Harry Maguire has used a series of interviews this week to set out a clear defence of his recent career and to lay down high expectations for Manchester United.<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old, who regained a club place after a difficult spell and the loss of the captaincy under Erik ten Hag, rejected the notion that his performances have been inconsistent. “I actually think, six of the [seven] seasons, I\u2019ve performed really well,” he told The Athletic. “I\u2019d have loved seven out of seven, and not had this little blip along the way and everyone won\u2019t be speaking about it as much.”<\/p>\n
Maguire also framed his international prospects confidently as he vies for selection for Thomas Tuchel\u2019s World Cup roster. “Whatever role the manager would want me for, whether that\u2019s starting or deciding games late on… I still believe, even at my age, I\u2019m arguably one of the best defenders in the world in both boxes. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s open to question, really.”<\/p>\n
The centre back pointed to measurable strengths in support of that belief. No Premier League player can better Maguire\u2019s aerial win rate of 78% this season, per Opta. Ruben Amorim has praised his set-piece threat, calling him “the only guy that can score a goal with his headers.” Maguire added: “I have great self-belief, more importantly, that I\u2019m a top player,” Maguire insisted. “That\u2019s what helps me when things are tough.”<\/p>\n
He was equally bullish about United\u2019s prospects. “I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any ceiling on it looking at the Premier League at the moment,” Maguire told The Telegraph when quizzed on United\u2019s prospects. “I think over the last few years you\u2019ve obviously had Manchester City, who were really tough to catch, and before the start of any season you knew you had to put a points tally together where it was some going to catch them.<\/p>\n
“I think next season you look at it we\u2019ve got to be in the bracket where, if we get the recruitment right and everything\u2019s positive from now to the end of this season, there\u2019s no ceiling of where we can reach.<\/p>\n
“If we were speaking about it [the title] at the end of last season [when United finished 15th], you\u2019d probably think we were a bit stupid really. But we\u2019re in a strong position now.<\/p>\n
“Come February, March, we don\u2019t want to be adrift like we have been this year. We\u2019ve got to be in the conversation to go and win the big trophies.”<\/p>\n
Maguire stressed the importance of recruitment as United prepare for European competition and a bigger fixture load. “I always want to be part of a squad that I felt like could compete and the recruitment went well last year, we brought in some top players who helped us,” Maguire told ESPN. “I think this summer\u2019s going to be a big summer, I think we\u2019ve got to recruit really well,” Maguire warned. “Obviously there\u2019s a big manager decision as well, but I think the recruitment side of it is bringing players in.<\/p>\n
“I think this summer has got to be a big year because we\u2019re not in Europe this year, we\u2019ve played 40 games at the end of the season, and we definitely need a bigger squad next year.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maguire defends consistency, cites 78% aerial win rate and urges heavy recruitment for next season. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11257,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,172],"tags":[1162,260,1393],"class_list":["post-11258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-epl","tag-analytics","tag-bryan-mbeumo","tag-centre-back"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}