Harry Maguire says he is relishing this season’s challenge after his heroics vs. Fulham | OneFootball

Manchester United defender Harry Maguire has insisted that he is relishing this season’s challenge after a fantastic performance during the club’s Premier League opener vs. Fulham last Friday.

While many were expecting new signing Matthijs de Ligt to slot next to Lisandro Martinez at the heart of United’s defence, Erik ten Hag deemed it fit to name Maguire in his starting XI and the player repaid his manager’s faith in kind.

During the time he was on the pitch before being substituted with 10 minutes of regular time left on the clock, Maguire made an astonishing five clearances and three interceptions.

He won five of the six ground duels he delved into and registered an impressive pass accuracy of 83%.

Joshua Zirkzee may have claimed United’s Man of the Match award for his all-important goal that won the match for the Red Devils but Maguire was undoubtedly the side’s unsung hero.

The 31-year-old sat down with club media and reiterated that he is looking forward to the rigours of this season and competition for places.

Maguire said, “I feel good, I feel fit. Physically and mentally, I’m in a good place and yeah, I’m looking forward to a big season.”

“There’s so many games this season. I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of changes to come, game to game, in the starting eleven. And when your turn is upon you, you need to take your chance. And yeah, it’s one that we’ll need a big squad for.”

“For myself, I feel fit and ready to go and looking forward to the season.”

Maguire added, “Obviously, we want to be in the Champions League spots. We missed out this season as we weren’t good enough in the league.

“I think we don’t really want to set any targets [but] I think this club demands trophies. So we want to win another trophy, of course, and in the Premier League we know there’s large improvements that we need to do and make from what we did last season.”

“For sure, we’ve got to improve on last season and let’s see where it goes and takes us.”

The United No.5 noted that competition for places will not only come from the new arrivals such as De Ligt but also from the club’s talented crop of youngsters.

“This club has always given opportunities to young players and this club has always produced good players. So the young boys know if they come and train with us and they perform and they do well in the games then they’ll be given opportunities, because this manager has proven that over the last couple of years.”

“It’s going to be up to them, whether they take it or not. And they have the ability and the talent that they can do.”

United return to action this Saturday when they travel to the Amex to take on Brighton and Hove Albion.

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