Harry Maguire struggled with sleepless nights after letting manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer fall.
The Manchester United captain has spoken of the emotional impact of last weekend’s 5-0 defeat at home to Liverpool.
8
8
8
That has put huge pressure on coach Solskjaer whose job is now hanging by a thread after a one-point streak from four league games.
Red Devils captain Maguire said: “When you look at the result and the performance it was embarrassing. There is nowhere near enough for this club.
“It’s been a tough week. I wouldn’t say we moved on easily. It’s one of the lowest levels, I’m sure all the players have felt in their careers.
“You go home and don’t sleep much, you have thoughts running through your head; ‘If only I did this or that.'”
“If I’m being honest, I’d come home and look at myself and what I could do better and take the full responsibility on my shoulder.
“I hope every player in the dressing room looks at himself, takes full responsibility on his shoulders and doesn’t point fingers and blame anyone else. You look at yourself first and foremost when you have a result like this and a period like this.
Free Bets: Get over £2000 on new customer deals
“We let the manager down against Liverpool. We let the fans down, we let the club down, we were players. So we have to take a lot of responsibility for that. Do we owe him a performance? Of course we do.”
They should put up this performance at Tottenham’s stadium on Saturday.
But there is no indication that this will happen, not least given their recent run of results and the way they have been leaking goals like Sieve with Maguire in the center of defence.
There are question marks over whether he was brought back so quickly after his calf injury.
He only had one training session but was selected before Eric Bailly for the away match against Leicester where they lost 4-2.
Since then, they have conceded two goals for Atalanta and five goals for Liverpool last Sunday.
8
8
That is 11 in his last three games as well as his 20th place – the worst in the Premier League – due to tackles made and duels wins.
Maguire said Sky Sports: “We don’t generally look at stats. They have a big say but I didn’t know those stats. That’s something I’m sure the staff looks at.
“We look at the performances and the results. The defensive performance over the past week, we know we conceded a lot of goals.
“I take a lot of responsibility for that. I take responsibility for my performance as well as my defensive performance as well.
“I’m the captain, I’ve been a mainstay in defense for over two years. We’ve made some good impressions but at the moment we’re not defending well enough.
“My performance wasn’t good enough and I’m looking forward to getting back to the level I showed before the injury in the last two seasons.
8
8
8
“Since the start of the season, we missed a lot of chances and this week we were punished with chances in the first half. We gave them chances and they punished us. You can’t do that against these good teams and you can’t always get away with it.
“If I can tell you why, we’ll do something about it. We’re working on it, we’re analyzing it. We have to get better.”
Former United captain Wayne Rooney Maguire and his teammates were accused of “unacceptable” laziness.
Maguire replied: “When you play for this club you have to expect that and know how to deal with the pressures of playing for Manchester United.
“You’ve won a few games and you’re being talked about as a great team. If you lose a few games, everyone talks about you badly. That’s playing for this club.
“It’s not the first time I’ve had this situation. It’s not the first time these players have been. Now we have to stay together as a group, try to move forward from the result and put in a positive performance on Saturday.”
“That’s what we have to do as a group of players, stay united, show spirit and show who we are as players.
“We have great players at this club, we have a lot of experience, great international players and now we have to show that. The spirit in the group is really good and we hold on to each other and we can move on.
“We have a big game and we need to take care of the performance and make sure we give the fans something to be proud of because we know we let them down this week for sure.”
⚽ Read Manchester United live blog For the latest news and gossip transfers from Old Trafford
