Manager slams negative reports about Manchester United loanee after brilliant performance

Wigan Athletic boss Shaun Maloney has slammed negative reports about Manchester United loanee Joe Hugill after a brilliant performance on the weekend.

The Reds were busy in the summer transfer window, signing five first-team players for Erik ten Hag’s squad.

Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui, Leny Yoro, Manuel Ugarte and Joshua Zirkzee all joined to bolster the options for the manager.

Significant sales were also made throughout the summer, including Mason Greenwood and Scott McTominay. Jadon Sancho was also sent on loan to Chelsea with an obligation to buy.

Importantly, as well, the Reds also managed to secure some important loan moves for some of the young talent in their academy.

Joe Hugill’s move to Wigan

Joe Hugill moved to League One outfit Wigan on loan only days after scoring a screamer for United in pre-season.

The 20-year-old striker has been highly rated at Old Trafford since he moved from Sunderland in 2020, and this provided him with a good opportunity to play consistent minutes in a competitive league.

After going without a goal in his first five games, there were some negative reports about his start to life at The Brick Community Stadium.

However, after finally netting twice against Bristol Rovers on the weekend, Wigan boss Shaun Maloney has slammed those reports and claimed that Hugill has been in the right goalscoring positions since joining.

Instead, the 41-year-old manager wanted to see his team feed the United loanee the ball in the right areas more often, and he showed that he could slot away the chances in the danger zone.

Asked whether something suddenly ‘clicked’ for Hugill, Maloney told Wigan Today: “No. He’s already shown me what he can do. He’s been in those positions all season, our problem has been that final pass, that final cross, into him.

“Joe’s been in there, and he should have had probably double figures chances… but he hasn’t been given those chances. At Bristol, those balls fell in the right areas for him.

“And you saw what happened, so it’s up to us to keep finding him in those positions. I read something online written by someone that wasn’t particularly positive about Joe’s start here.

“It suggested he was struggling here, but he was never struggling. He was actually learning about the positions I’m wanting him to get into, and he was managing to do that

“We just weren’t finding him in the first few games, but he was still absolutely fantastic without the ball, and his positioning was really good. So I’ve never been anything other than really pleased with him, because I would never judge a player by their goals.

“I’ll judge him on the amount of chances he takes when we manage to find him, and he’s staying to find the back of the net now. Joe’s extremely fast, he’s a very good finisher, and once he gets better at holding the ball up against more physical players, he’s become even better.

“Whatever level the lad wants to reach, there’s no ceiling I’d ever put on him, he has so many attributes. I know that when forward players score, it gives you that lift, but he’s still got work to do. There’s different ways of scoring that he can get better at, but he’s had a very good start here.”

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