Harry Maguire admitted “naive” Manchester United paid the worth for being too attacking within the last minutes of their shock 2-1 defeat in opposition to Fulham on Saturday. Erik ten Hag’s aspect suffered a serious blow to their hopes of a high 4 end within the Premier League as Alex Iwobi snatched Fulham’s winner seven minutes into stoppage-time. United defender Maguire appeared to have rescued some extent when his close-range end within the 89th minute cancelled out Calvin Bassey’s sixty fifth minute opener. But United have been caught throwing gamers ahead searching for all three factors as Iwobi capped a counter-attack to seal Fulham’s first victory at Old Trafford since 2003.

“Overall on the balance of play we didn’t do enough in the first 60 minutes or so. We started the game not great,” Maguire stated.

“The first half was pretty even, but when you’re not playing at your best you have to do the basics right.

“To be a objective behind, I assumed our response was good particularly within the final half-hour and after we equalised in all probability just one workforce 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.”

Sixth positioned United are actually eight factors adrift of fourth positioned Aston Villa within the race to qualify for subsequent season’s Champions League.

United might haven’t any complaints after Fulham dominated with a show that punctured the optimism round Old Trafford following the affirmation of Jim Ratcliffe’s buy of a 25 % stake within the membership this week.

British billionaire Ratcliffe, a boyhood United fan, has taken management of the membership’s soccer operations from unpopular homeowners the Glazer household.

But United’s tame efficiency underlined how a lot work they need to do to fulfil Ratcliffe’s daring ambition of knocking Manchester City and Liverpool “off their perch”.

Maguire claimed United have been hampered by the absence of Denmark striker Rasmus Hojlund, who had been in high-quality kind earlier than struggling an damage this week.

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

“We can play into him, he holds it up, he starts the press really well, not only that but Marcus (Rashford) has been playing really well on the left.

“It’s the story of our season, we have been damage hit, as different groups have, and we have to discover a resolution fast.”

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