When Gareth Southgate’s squad met up in October Maguire had made solely two begins for Erik ten Hag’s facet all season however he has been ever-present within the beginning XI since, often in a partnership with veteran Jonny Evans as Raphael Varane and Victor Lindelof have needed to bide their time.
Maguire and Evans just isn’t a pairing many would have seen coming in the summertime, when Maguire was being linked with a transfer away from Outdated Trafford and Evans was a free agent after leaving relegated Leicester.
An harm to Evans will see a change made when Luton go to on Saturday, however Ten Hag mentioned Maguire was preserving former Actual Madrid defender Varane, a key a part of final season’s success, out on advantage.
“Harry Maguire is doing very nicely in the intervening time, and I’m very proud of that,” he mentioned. “As I at all times mentioned, Harry Maguire can do the job — and now he’s exhibiting he can do the job.
“Final yr Harry didn’t play loads, so I used to be very proud of Rapha’s performances. I’ve at all times been pleased along with his efficiency. However on this second, Harry is taking part in very nicely and there may be inner competitors.”
Ten Hag sees Maguire and Varane as being in direct competitors for the suitable facet of central defence. Though Maguire has spent a lot of his profession on the left, Ten Hag doesn’t just like the steadiness of his facet with the 30-year-old there.
“There are moments in sure video games the place they’ll play collectively they usually have already confirmed they’ll do it,” he mentioned. “However the build-up just isn’t that fluid when certainly one of them is taking part in from the left.”
Final season, the partnership Varane shaped with Lisandro Martinez, protected by Casemiro, helped United win the Carabao Cup and return to the Champions League. However with Martinez and Casemiro at present out injured together with Luke Shaw, and Varane out of favour, there’s a completely different have a look at current.
“The accidents don’t assist us,” Ten Hag mentioned. “So typically you need to swap the again 4 and then you definately don’t get the routine. In such moments, it’s so necessary to have routines.
“We had a brand new keeper (Andre Onana) coming in and each time you type a brand new again 4 they usually know the foundations and rules, however the routines are usually not the identical.
“Communication is so necessary, however that’s all split-second selections. You want that cooperation and also you want it 100 per cent as a result of when it doesn’t work, then you definately concede targets at this degree.”
Wednesday’s dramatic 4-3 Champions League defeat in Copenhagen made it 9 defeats from 17 video games in all competitions for United this season, piling the strain on Ten Hag amid on the continuing await Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s buy of a minority stake within the membership to be accomplished.
“Nothing has modified (in our method),” Ten Hag added. “We keep in the identical points as a result of we aren’t in the most effective second, however I believe I see that we’re going ahead, like at Fulham (a 1-0 win final weekend), and I assumed Copenhagen was an excellent sport and we’ve to construct on that.
“Andre Onana got here new in and within the final video games has stepped up, Rasmus Hojlund is a brand new striker and he got here in and is stepping up. That’s good things.
“We had some good midfield steadiness within the final two video games, and hopefully we are able to preserve that with out new accidents in such departments after which I believe we are able to actually enhance and discover our success this season.”
