Harry Maguire urges Man Utd to be more ‘arrogant’ when in possession

Harry Maguire has urged Manchester United to be more ‘arrogant’ when in possession if they are to return to the top of the English game.

The centre-back has lamented a lack of quality when on the ball and highlights this as a reason for United’s recent shortcomings in the wake of their difficult start to the season.

Can United be more arrogant? Five key things to know…

• Manchester United have not won a Premier League title since 2012-13 – Sir Alex Ferguson’s last season in charge.
• United have fallen seven points behind the leaders after just four games this term.
• Harry Maguire was United’s marquee signing over the summer, arriving for £80m.
• The defender criticised the 1-1 draw against Southampton on Saturday, lamenting a lack of quality in possession.
• He has now called for United to be more ‘arrogant’ on the ball.

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Manchester United have not won since the opening day of the season when they beat Chelsea 4-0 at Old Trafford.

They have drawn twice and lost once in their subsequent three games and were unable to beat Southampton in the last match despite taking the lead and the Saints being reduced to 10 men.

Maguire was unhappy with the way United gave away the ball and has suggested they need to be more ‘arrogant’ when in possession.

“It’s another game where we’ve deserved to win. We’ve created the majority of the chances and we’ve dropped two points,” he said.

“The start of our season has been like that. We deserved to win at Wolves and then we conceded two shots against Palace and they scored two.

“We can definitely improve, especially on the ball. We gave the ball away far too much. We were too sloppy and we need to improve on that and show arrogance and be confident on the ball.

“We’re Man United – we want to control games. There were spells where we didn’t control the game, and we got punished.”

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It is becoming a familiar theme for United and they will have to make improvements if they are to close the already sizable gap on those at the top.

United were unable to find a second breakthrough even though Southampton went down to 10 men following Kevin Danso’s sending off.

“That’s how we should play all the way through the game. You’ve seen the confidence of the players when they went down to 10 men,” Maguire added.

“They seemed like they wanted the ball, everyone wanted to create a chance. We did enough in that 15 minutes to score a goal.

“We’ve got to be more clinical. We had numerous crosses, numerous balls across the box, we just needed to stick one in. We’ll keep working hard, keep improving.”

United host Leicester City in their next Premier League fixture, with the Foxes currently three points ahead of the Red Devils in the table.