Maguire reflects on City loss

Sunday 06 March 2022 19:45

Manchester United captain Harry Maguire insists the Reds must have full focus over the next week to bounce back from Sunday's derby defeat.

After an equal first half in which Kevin de Bruyne's two goals sandwiched Jadon Sancho's brilliant curler, Manchester City dominated after the break and scored twice more.

Maguire admits the result is "disappointing" and says the squad are "devastated" by the defeat, but insists attention must turn to several important upcoming games.

Here's what the skipper had to say...

 
Maguire: We’re all disappointed Video

Maguire: We’re all disappointed

The Reds captain Harry Maguire speaks out after United lose at City...

THE TOP FOUR RACE

"We know it’s an important end to the season that we’ve got. It’s a run of games where we know that we’ve got to go on a run, we’ve got to go and pick up win after win after win and we’re more than capable of doing it but we’ve got to show it on the pitch, we’ve got to show it every game that we go into, take each game as it comes, a big game against Tottenham next. We’ve got to make sure that we focus this week. I know it’s going to be a disappointing couple of days, it always is when you lose one of these big, emotional games. The lads are devastated in there. We’ll obviously analyse the game, look at areas we can improve on but when we come to Tottenham, we’ve got to make sure that we’re ready to give a performance and ready to get the result that we want."

WHAT WENT WRONG

"It’s a disappointing result for the players, for the club, for the fans, for everyone involved. We come into these games full of emotion, we give everything, we work tirelessly in the preparation, we look forward to the games and we had great belief that we could get the result.

"So, first and foremost, it’s very disappointing that we’ve come here and got the result that we did. The game was 50-50 first half. [It was] very disappointing to go in 2-1 down, I felt like the game was probably edged towards ourselves and we could have gone in with a positive result. But 2-1 down, and we could take the positives into the second half and we’ve come out and we haven’t performed in the second half.

"We haven’t done things that we did in the first half well, and for me, the main thing was, when we had the ball, we just gave it back to them far too cheaply, far too easily, we weren’t clean enough with our passing. And in moments where we did have chances to hurt them we weren’t clinical enough, we weren’t clean enough with the passing and the transitional moments in the game, especially in the second half. We gave away the ball far too easily and we know that they like to control the game through possession and they did that in the second half."

 

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THE SECOND HALF

"We had good belief at half-time. We played the first half well, like I say, it was probably a 50-50 game in terms of both teams playing aggressive, both teams playing on the front foot. But the difference was, when we won the ball back off them in the first half, we were clean, we were good in transitions, we got on the counter-attack, we punished them a lot of times with finding good balls out wide and we kept the ball in their half. The second half comes and any time they put us under pressure we gave away the ball far too easily. It enabled them to control the game through possession and it made it difficult for ourselves to get up the pitch, and obviously they did what they do in terms of keeping the ball and they did that well in the second half. For me the most important thing is that we’ve got to look after the ball better."

Report: City 4 United 1

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A frustrating day for the Reds as the Blues run out winners in the Manchester derby.

ON UNITED'S TRAVELLING SUPPORT

"They were singing, they clapped us off the pitch at the end. Our fans are amazing, I always say it, they’re the best fans in the world. We’re disappointed that we couldn’t give them something to cheer about today. This season hasn’t been good enough on our behalf in the Premier League at all. Obviously we’ve given them nice moments, but not enough of them and we need to make sure that in the remaining games of the season - I know that they’ll be right behind us because that’s what they do, that’s why they’re the best fans in the world - we’ve got to make sure we put a smile back on their faces because I know it’s going to be hard for them this week. We’ve got to make sure that when we come to Tottenham next week we put a smile back on their faces with a victory."

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