Manchester United were undone by a set piece yet again in tonight’s deflating 2-0 defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers, but Harry Maguire insists “things will change” in that area.
Speaking to Amazon Prime after the game, Maguire expressed his frustration at the red card shown to Bruno Fernandes, and pinpointed this as the moment the game changed.
“I felt like we had control in the first half without doing much with it,” he said. “Going into the second half, we needed to up it and the red card changed the game. It’s hard enough playing with 11 men in the Premier League.”
Wolves had the ball in the back of the net within seconds of the United captain’s dismissal, although the goal was chalked off for offside.
But some ten minutes later the hosts did take the lead, as Matheus Cunha’s corner drifted directly over a stranded Andre Onana in an unwelcome repeat of Son Heung-min’s effort for Tottenham Hotspur in the Carabao Cup last week.
Pointing to the depressingly regularity with which United concede from set pieces, Maguire said: “Set plays are so important in football matches, they decide games. The first goal has been a set play far too many times against us and it’s disappointing.”
When asked how to sort this out, Maguire’s response was simple: “Work. Work. Work more on the training pitch.”
He added: “I think teams now are maybe targeting our area of set plays and the strange thing is I don’t feel like we’re conceding many chances from them.”
Teams may not be creating chances from set pieces, largely because they are too busy scoring goals from them – United have now conceded 18 goals from set-pieces in 2024.
Returning to tonight’s match, Maguire said: “They’ve had a few set plays tonight and we’ve dealt with them really well and then they’ve gone and scored from one.
“I think [the way to address the issues defending set pieces is] hard work, keep the belief, things will change, I know that.
“We have players who can defend the box well and it will change we’ve just got to stick together.”
Featured image Naomi Baker via Getty Images
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Joe Ponting
Joe has spent more than half his life writing about football and all of it following United. As a child he told a doctor his name was ‘Paul Scholes’, but could never pick a pass like him no matter how much he tried.
