Defender highlights settled defense and team-wide urgency as key to four straight wins under interim manager.
Manchester United defender Harry Maguire has pinpointed the key change behind the team’s dramatic turnaround under interim manager Michael Carrick: a return to organized, urgent, and collective defending.
Since replacing the sacked Ruben Amorim last month, Carrick has guided United to four consecutive Premier League victories—against Manchester City, Arsenal, Fulham, and Tottenham—solidifying their hold on fourth place. Maguire believes the shift from Amorim’s complex 3-4-2-1 formation to a more straightforward 4-2-3-1 setup has brought clarity and confidence back to the squad.
“I always say as a footballer, when the structure is good, you can perform,” Maguire told TNT Sports. “But the structure has got to be good all around you.”
The England international highlighted a major improvement in defensive resilience, a stark contrast to the vulnerability seen in recent months. “I think that’s the main thing that’s improved over the past three games: we’ve defended our box a lot better with a lot more urgency,” he explained. “Previously, we defended our box nowhere near good enough. Every time the ball went into the box, they had a chance.”
Maguire emphasized that this new solidity is a team-wide effort, praising midfielders and forwards for tracking back. “It’s not just from the defenders, it’s from the midfielders and the wide men getting back in and the striker protecting the edge of the box. It’s so important that we do it as a team.”
Carrick has also fostered stability by selecting a settled side, reinstating the central defensive partnership of Maguire and Lisandro Martínez, and deploying Kobbie Mainoo in a consistent midfield role alongside Casemiro. This has allowed Bruno Fernandes to flourish in his preferred number 10 position.
“Michael will bring that structure,” Maguire said of the interim boss’s approach. “There will be times where you’ll see us be really aggressive and times where we’re content keeping the spaces short and punishing teams on the counter-attack. It’s important to be tactically flexible.”
As United prepare to face West Ham on Tuesday in search of a fifth straight win, Maguire’s comments suggest the squad now feels a clear, effective plan is in place—something that had been missing under the previous regime.
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