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Sunday 29 December 2024 10:00
Manchester United defender Harry Maguire has racked up over 200 appearances for the club since he joined from Leicester City in 2019.
There have been highs and lows during his time in M16 so far, but one constant remains throughout: teamwork.
That was a key feature of last season, when the squad had to pull together to ride out intense spates of injury and availability issues, so a figurehead like Maguire is delighted to be part of a squad with plenty of options and strong competition for places this term.
“It’s really good that we’re looking in a real strong position now,” the defender told club media in an exclusive interview, discussing the options now available in the squad. “Defensively, I think, last year, obviously it was really tough, every game having to change players, players playing out of position, but we look like we’ve got a good solid base back now and lots of competition for places.”
Discussing defending with Harry Video
Discussing defending with Harry
Exclusive | Harry Maguire dissects the work that goes into being a United defender with MUTV…
It’s an environment that Maguire works well in, backed up by the starts he has earned under boss Ruben Amorim in recent weeks. He understands all too well how vital competition is for the squad.
He continued: “[It’s] really important at a club like this, everyone pushing each other, striving for more. At the end of the day, we all want to win.
“We all want to be successful. We want to win trophies. And yeah, I think it’s so important that now we’ve got lots of competition.”
Recent results have shown that challenges will still come our way, but with more options at the manager’s disposal, and that strong team spirit, bouncing back is always on the cards.
A key part of maintaining that togetherness, not only within the defensive unit but throughout the whole squad, is communication, and Maguire sees that as a vital part of his role on the pitch.
“I think it’s so important to communicate as a defence with each other, but also all the team, I think it brings energy,” the defender said. “I also think for an individual, I think when you’re communicating through the game, you keep yourself focused.
“But I also think it brings good energy within the team. For example, if you’re putting a big press on and you hear loud voices from the back, it can feed the energy and it can feed off each other.
“I think that’s so important if you want to be an aggressive team.”
Maguire describes that motivating, off-the-ball work as a core part of his role in the side, especially to keep forwards engaged when they’re charged with pressing an energetic opponent.
“Yeah, definitely, I think you’ve got to encourage them,” the 31-year-old said. “Of course, they want to be scoring all the goals but it’s such an important part of the game now, defending without the ball, and I think all the top teams are the best teams defending without the ball.
“That enables them to keep the ball because they get the ball back so quick, but things like that are so important for us defenders.”
But defenders cannot spend an entire game marshalling the rest of the team, they must also be comfortable in their own individual game. We asked Maguire to take us through the parts of his own performance he has to concentrate on in a typical match.
He told us: “One of the most important things as a defender is being aggressive, not being passive, being aggressive with the opponent, being aggressive in the line that you take, enables others to push up the pitch.
“Really playing on the front foot, making interceptions, winning duels, keeping the opponent in their half.
“I think all those are really important, especially in today’s modern game, to enable yourselves to have a good performance through the team and to get the result that you want.”
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Sunday 29 December 2024 10:00
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