Ole Gunnar Solskjaer appreciates Harry Maguire’s performance against Manchester United

Manchester United’s interim boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has highlighted the performance of Leicester City defender Harry Maguire during the Red Devils slender 1-0 Premier League on Sunday. The Mancunian giants scrapped through the game with the solitary first half goal from Marcus Rashford but things could have been quite different, had it not been for their defensive resolve throughout the game.

Speaking after the game, Ole was pleased with the performance from the Red Devils, who secured their eighth win in nine league matches under his tutelage. He added to praise the qualities of Maguire, who was a constant threat for their defence especially from set-pieces, he said: “When you’re only 1-0 up, anything can happen in that box. And I think that Harry Maguire has got a magnet on his head because it nearly always drops to him. A fantastic player in the box. So we knew we had to defend against him and out lads, they blocked, put their bodies on the line so it was a fantastic effort and they were fighting for each other.”

United dominated the proceedings for the first period and they were unlucky to go to the break with the solitary goal after some clear-cut misses from Marcus Rashford. Following the interval, the east Midlands outfit put the pressure on them and they were eventually forced to hang on with goalkeeper David de Gea making impressive saves including one off a Rachid Ghezzal freekick.

With the result, the Mancunian outfit have jumped to fifth on the table ahead of Arsenal, who suffered a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Manchester City on the road. United were 11 points behind the fourth position when Jose Mourinho was sacked in December but they are now two adrift of the same after building up an unbeaten streak under Ole.