HARRY MAGUIRE gets it – now he will be hoping his team-mates do too.
He gets just why the scrutiny on Manchester United is greater than at any other club… why the criticism at times seems disproportional.
And why they must use that, in the way Sir Alex Ferguson did, to create a siege mentality and prove people wrong.
Maguire said: “One thing I’ve noticed in my time here – I’ve been here a year and a half – is we are the most-talked-about club in the world.
“Why? Because we are the biggest club in the world.
“People don’t want us to do well. Why? Probably because of our past success.
“We have to live up to that, we have to react to it and don’t let the negatives get into our bubble inside the training ground. Sometimes it is difficult for the lads.”
United have not been relevant with regards to the title race now for seven years. Yet still people revel in their demise.
Why? Well Maguire is right. So many clubs have suffered at their hands down the years.
Newcastle denied a title in 1996, Arsenal’s Double ripped from their hands in dramatic fashion in 1999.
Liverpool have had their noses rubbed in it as Sir Alex lifted 13 titles while they lifted none. None for thirty years until this past season.
Still now some Manchester City fans are as obsessed with their neighbour’s travails as with what their own team is doing.
This despite the fact that they have long since overtaken United on their way to the top with four titles in eight years.
Yet those barren decades when the red half would look down their noses still rankle.
So for many this is payback – and with every mis-step the glee seems to grow.
So what do you do? You actually let all those negatives in and turn them around and say ‘we’ll show you’.
Not just with a great performance here and there but every week.
Bruno Fernandes was brilliant in Saturday’s 3-1 win at Everton – scoring twice and setting up Edinson Cavani for the third.
That does not mean, however, that he now has a free pass at home to West Brom in the next game after the international break.
Because it certainly looked like he had given himself one against Arsenal as he sulked his way through that 1-0 loss at Old Trafford at the start of the month – not least when he was moved wide to accommodate Paul Pogba coming on.
Wayne Rooney was moved all over the park to accommodate Cristiano Ronaldo, even playing as a right wing-back once, and he just got on with the job.
And when it comes to the Champions League you cannot live off two great results against two of Europe’s best in Paris Saint-Germain and RB Leipzig and then take your foot off the pedal against a team few had even heard of until the last year in Istanbul Basaksehir.
United can’t keep living off ‘reactions’ like this one, because every time they do they seem to drop points previously.
They cannot keep pointing to a lack of intensity for poor performance because if it does you become ‘Spursy’ and win nothing.
Captain Maguire gets it and was excellent in Saturday’s win at Goodison Park.
He has been a target after a difficult start to the season before the previous internationals.
But he is back to his best and looking like the player from last season who was part of the third best defence in the league.
Indeed it was he who set the move going that lead to Cavani’s injury-time goal.
Completing the comeback after Bernard’s 19th-minute opener.
Fernandes’ header six minutes later brought the visitors level, the same man saw his cross nestle in the far corner on 32 minutes. Replays showed Marcus Rashford didn’t get a touch.
Afterwards Solskjaer raged at the fact that United had to play this game at 12.30pm having just returned from Turkey at 4am on Thursday.
He had a very good point and he used this sense of injustice to inspire his team.
He said: “The boys weren’t giving anyone a chance to take three points off us, they were so determined.”
They need that same determination against West Brom, then Southampton and then…
