Harry Maguire says Manchester United must fix ‘not good enough’ home form | OneFootball

Harry Maguire says Manchester United must turn Old Trafford into a fortress and rediscover confidence that has been dented by this season’s woeful form.

Last weekend’s 2-0 defeat to Crystal Palace was the Red Devils’ seventh Premier League loss on home soil of a campaign to forget and threatened to be compounded by lowly Leicester in the FA Cup.

United were booed off at half-time of Friday’s FA Cup fourth round tie, with a lifeless display by Ruben Amorim’s men punished when Bobby De Cordova-Reid scored just before the break.

The hosts bounced back to secure a 2-1 win through substitute Joshua Zirkzee and Maguire’s controversial offside header at the death, but the latter knows vast improvements are necessary.

“No TV today!” the England defender said with a smile when asked whether Amorim had punched a dressing room television in anger as he reportedly did after last month’s 3-1 home defeat to Brighton.

“No, he was calm (at half-time). He was speaking tactics and he said we need to get the next goal and we’ll go on to win the game and he was proven right.

“He had the belief we could change the tempo of the game and we did change the tempo of the game. He brought Garns [Alejandro Garnacho] on, who added a lot more pace to our attack.

“Obviously we can’t be starting games like that at Old Trafford.

“I think the run of results at Old Trafford has been so poor that I think now the boys have lost maybe that confidence of playing in front of a crowd and things.

“It’s something we need to address because if we want to be a successful team we’ve got to make it hard for teams to come here and play and the first half wasn’t good.”

United head to Tottenham and Everton before their next home match against Ipswich on February 26 and Maguire admits there have been frank conversations about their Old Trafford struggles.

“We’ve spoken about it,” he said. “Obviously it’s not something we can put our finger on, otherwise we’d change it.

“I think it’s nights like tonight when you grind that win out and it gives you that little bit of belief but I think, at the moment, once we’ve conceded the first goal… have we turned a game around this season?”

Reminded that they recently came back to beat Southampton 3-1, he said: “That’s probably the only one this season.

“We’ve got to stop conceding that first goal. If you’re not playing your free-flowing football and the performances isn’t great, you’ve just got to keep yourself at 0-0 for as long as you can because you know we have talent in the team that can change the momentum of the game.

“But at the moment whenever we come under a tiny bit of pressure, we concede a goal and that’s not good enough.”

United certainly made hard work of beating Leicester to seal their place in Monday’s FA Cup fifth round draw – difficulties that ultimately resulted in Maguire enjoying an unforgettable Old Trafford moment.

The centre-back headed home a Bruno Fernandes free-kick in the third and final minute of stoppage time, with a lack of VAR at this stage of the competition meaning his offside goal stood.

“In six years at the club, I haven’t managed a last-minute winner at the Stretford End, so it’s something I’ll never forget playing for this club,” Maguire said.

“I’ve scored at the Stretford End but not in the last minute. It’s an amazing feeling.”

As for Maguire’s former club Leicester, they will look to harness their anger over the winning goal when they welcome title challengers Arsenal next weekend.

They return to the King Power Stadium after three games on the road, with Friday’s FA Cup loss following a 2-1 win at Tottenham in the league and meek 4-0 defeat at Everton.

Leicester boss Ruud van Nistelrooy said: “We leave the ground here, not like when we left Spurs, but similar.

“Everton was nowhere near. It wasn’t good enough, we said it, but we reacted and showed that we’re back in that fight that we need in the next weeks.”