Harry Maguire disagrees with Erik ten Hag over reasons behind Man Utd defeat
Harry Maguire bemoaned Manchester United's injury woes, with Erik ten Hag insisting that wasn't an excuse for their dismal 2-1 loss at home to Fulham on Saturday afternoon.
The Red Devils fell behind in the 65th minute courtesy of a Calvin Bassey goal before Maguire - who was fortunate to avoid being sent off in the first-half - equalised with just a minute of normal time remaining. Alex Iwobi plundered a dramatic winner in the seventh minute of additional time, though, to condemn United to defeat.
Erik ten Hag's side headed into the match without Rasmus Hojlund, who has been in top form in recent weeks. The striker had scored in six successive Premier League matches but was an absentee against Fulham. And Maguire believes losing a key figure like Hojlund pretty much sums up how their season has gone.
Speaking post-match, Maguire said: "We got hit by the injury to Rasmus, who has been big focal point for us but it is up to us to find the solutions and the areas we need to improve on. He has been our focal point, we can play into him, he holds it up, he starts the press really well, not only that but Marcus has been playing really well on the left.
"It's the story of our season, we've been injury hit - as other teams have - and we need to find a solution quick." He went on to lament United's subpar start to the match but felt aggrieved at how the rest of the game panned out.
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"Overall on the balance of play we didn't do enough in the first 60 minutes or so, we started the game not great," he reasoned. "The first half was pretty even, but when you're not playing at your best you have to do the basics right and set pieces is part of that.
"We knew they would cause us a threat from those areas and they've scored early in the second from what we knew - so that's disappointing on that aspect. To be a goal behind, I thought our reaction was brilliant especially in the last 30 minutes and when we equalised probably only one team going to win it.
Join the debate! What did you make of Man Utd's performance against Fulham? Let us know here.
Fulham clinched victory courtesy of a last-gasp goal from Alex Iwobi (Getty Images)"We were probably naive in the end by throwing too many bodies forward and getting done on the counter attack. We've been on a good run of form and coming into the game we were confident."
Ten Hag refused to use injuries as an excuse, though, when he was asked for his thoughts after the game. He said: "With the squad we had today we should have won this game. Both halves were slow starts and we should be ready from the first whistle. That's a point of criticism but the team showed big character in both halves."
He added: "We struggled with their influence and their impact on our left side. But we reacted well and how to deal with it, how to step up from the back and once we had that we got more from the game and took control to create the chances."
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