Harry Maguire shoulders blame for Man Utd defeat to Fulham

Harry Maguire has taken the blame for Fulham's late winner at Old Trafford, admitting that he should have fouled Adama Traore in the build-up to Alex Iwobi's goal.

Manchester United suffered a harrowing 2-1 defeat to Fulham in the Premier League on Saturday thanks to a 97th-minute goal from ex-Arsenal man Iwobi. The defeat brought to an end a positive run of results for the Red Devils, who'd won their last five games in all competitions heading into the weekend.

Maguire proved to be one of the protagonists of the game at Old Trafford, controversially avoiding a red card in the 35th minute for a late challenge on Sasa Lukic before levelling the scores in the 89th with a header.

While the defender avoided a red card, his yellow would ultimately still come back to haunt Man Utd. Speaking to after the loss, the defender admitted that he would've chopped down Traore — who burst through late to tee up Iwobi's winner — had he not already been on a booking.

«I was on a booking myself, in hindsight, maybe I should have just brought him down, but then you miss next week. It's easy to say now,» admitted Maguire.

«We can look back and I’m sure we’ll assess it in terms of areas that we can improve on but, ultimately, over the 90 minutes we didn’t do enough to win the game.»

The defender also took the time to look ahead to Man Utd's FA Cup fifth round clash with Nottingham Forest on Wednesday evening, citing the game as an opportunity to bounce-back from a disappointing Premier League loss: «We know it's going to be a tough game in midweek. Our full focus is on that one. We've got to bounce back.

»A big reaction is needed. It's going to be a tough game but we've got to go there and produce a performance like we did there last year."

feed