Erik ten Hag disagrees with Harry Maguire’s Rasmus Højlund comment

Erik ten Hag has disagreed with the notion that Harry Maguire put forward relating to Rasmus Højlund following Manchester United’s 2-1 loss against Fulham.

Manchester United fell to their first defeat of 2024 as Alex Iwobi scored a dying-moment winner at Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon.

Despite an equalising goal from Harry Maguire in the final five minutes of regulation time, an injury to Casemiro earlier in the second half saw nine minutes added onto the Premier League tie, with Fulham taking full advantage over Erik ten Hag‘s men just before the full-time whistle blew.

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Speaking post-match, goalscorer Maguire explained that he feels Manchester United were heavily impacted by the loss of Rasmus Højlund, who was ruled out with injury the day before.

“We got hit by the injury to Rasmus, who has been a big focal point for us, but it is up to us to find the solutions and the areas we need to improve on,” Maguire said.

“He has been our focal point, we can play into him, he holds it up, he starts the press really well, not only that but Marcus has been playing really well on the left.

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Maguire continued, explaining that injuries have impacted United heavily this season. “It’s the story of our season; we’ve been injury-hit – as other teams have – and we need to find a solution quick.”

“Overall, on the balance of play, we didn’t do enough in the first 60 minutes or so; we started the game not great,” he said. “The first half was pretty even, but when you’re not playing at your best, you have to do the basics right and set pieces is part of that.

“We knew they would cause us a threat from those areas, and they’ve scored early in the second from what we knew – so that’s disappointing on that aspect. To be a goal behind, I thought our reaction was brilliant, especially in the last 30 minutes, and when we equalised, probably only one team was going to win it.

“We were probably naive in the end by throwing too many bodies forward and getting done on the counter-attack. We’ve been on a good run of form, and coming into the game, we were confident.”

Ten Hag, however, disagreed, refusing to use injuries as an excuse as to why United failed to grab any point at Old Trafford.

He said: “With the squad we had today, we should have won this game. Both halves were slow starts and we should be ready from the first whistle. That’s a point of criticism, but the team showed big character in both halves.”

He added: “We struggled with their influence and their impact on our left side. But we reacted well, and how to deal with it, how to step up from the back and once we had that, we got more from the game and took control to create the chances.”