Manchester United captain Harry Maguire has been in a slump this season and has been criticised by many accusing him of lacking leadership qualities, including Red Devils legend Roy Keane. However, on international matchday, Maguire played well, scoring for England in a row, while Red Devils boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer also insisted that he was not considering changing Maguire's captainship.
The 28-year-old Maguire became Captain Manchester United six months after joining the £80 million force, so the position is somewhat unconvincing. But Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said: "We are not up to the standards that should be met by the whole team, and everyone needs to work hard to meet expectations. Harry (Maguire), Gareth (Southgate) are right, he's not a person hiding in a hospital bed and wouldn't try to find any excuse to miss the game. Harry is a top professional player who wants to play for the head coach every time and he's training well. I think playing in England and scoring two goals helps his form and confidence."
In the United squad, Cristiano Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandez are considered more captainly, but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is naturally unlikely to change his hand-picked captain. "For me, no, I never considered taking the captain's armband out of Harry's hand. Since joining, he has been our loyal defender on and off the pitch. His family, the club, we are all happy with him, all support him, he is a top professional player and he will prove the criticism wrong."
The manager even went so far as to sneer at former Manchester United team-mate Keane: "The so-called experts, with their views, their job is to express their opinions, this is not something we have to worry about." As a role model for Manchester United players, Harry has always supported the team."
In response to criticism of his lack of technical tactics, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer stressed that he has a wealth of routines and training is also very good, but the team wasted scoring opportunities in the game. "We wasted opportunities in the game and we can't give any team a chance easily." "For example, we are about to face Watford, they are well organised, they have a strong counter-attack, they have excellent set-pieces, you have to make sure you are defending correctly. It could be the dark side of football, you know having to work hard, we've done a lot of things, like our routines, timing and coordination on the pitch when we're in possession. It looks good in training, and now we need to carry it through into the game."
Recently United switched to three centre-backs, and Solskjaer firmly believes that regardless of the formation, his style of play is the tradition of the Red Devils. "Formation is one thing, style is more important, it's proactive, forward, forward, high press or retreat defense, stop the opponent from scoring." "You can stick to the same style of play in different systems or formations, the key is how you treat the game and how we make sure that style of play is executed in place," Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said.
"Sometimes United use the breadth of the side, crosses to find a target for the centre-forward, sometimes the crosses on the foot, the main thing is that we give the players the opportunity to use their talents within the tactical framework of Manchester United. Whether it's 352, 343, 442 or 4231, it doesn't matter, it's all about the details and strategy we give in each of our games. We've worked on two different formations over the last two games, the last two games were three centre-backs and most of the games were 4231, but in the last few weeks we've had to make some small adjustments because some of the players are in poor form, injured or suspended."
As for why Manchester United was played by Manchester City in the last round of the Manchester City derby, solskjaer defended: "I have always wanted to see a Manchester United actively dominate on the pitch, I don't want to see my team wait passively, we would rather take the initiative, but if a team is better than us, sometimes you have to accept the reality." 」