Harry Maguire may well have got on the scoresheet in Manchester United’s 4-2 win over Leeds but he was far from happy with one shocking stat that finally ended.
The United captain headed home from a corner for his side’s opener at Elland Road – the first time they’d scored from a corner in 139 attempts.
Maguire was asked about the stat in his post-match interview and admits it’s an area of United’s game they need to quickly improve on.
‘I’m embarrassed by the stat [nearly 140 corners without a goal],’ he said.
‘I’m a big part of that set play routine but as a team we’ve been nowhere near good enough.
‘If we scored more from set pieces we’d be higher up the table.’
United led 2-0 going into half-time thanks to goals from Maguire and Bruno Fernandes but all their hard work was undone early on in the second half.
Rodrigo and Raphinha both scored within 24 seconds of each other to level the scores before Ralf Rangnick switched things up in the latter stages.
His two substitutes, Fred and Anthony Elanga, came off the bench to get on the scoresheet and hand United a four-point buffer over the chasing sides hunting down their fourth spot in the table.
Maguire admitted the start to the second half was far from ideal but was pleased with the way the team responded in tricky wet conditions to get the win.
‘We needed to start the second half better, for sure,’ he added.
‘They came out right on top of us; their first goal is obviously really lucky and it got them right back in it and then they scored a good goal.
‘We had to fight back and stick together; we knew it was a tough place to come but we knew we had qualities and could hurt them.
‘We said at half time we needed to score more in the second half and we managed to do that.
‘They [the conditions] were really bad. We came out at the start of the second half and tried to play the same way, but got caught in it.
‘It was old school, I’m sure it was good to watch but thankfully we came out on top.’
MORE : Anthony Elanga struck by coin thrown by Leeds fan during Manchester United’s win at Elland Road
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