Harry Maguire recently attended an event hosted by the Manchester United Foundation, interacting with children from Stratford High School, and spoke to reporters from camel.live about the team’s new signings and the dressing room atmosphere. Maguire praised new signing Benjamin Šeško as "an absolute giant" and stated that there has been excessive speculation about the role of the so-called six-man leadership group.
On the opening day defeat to Arsenal
“In this club, there’s absolutely no reason to be happy after a loss. We’re here to win, and the goal is three points, but right now there’s nothing to show for it in the league table. To be honest, it’s really disappointing.”
“However, we can also see positives: the team’s overall performance and intensity have clearly improved, and we deserved something from that game, actually.”
“Things are always like this—there are ups and downs. But like I just said, to be honest, the most genuine feeling is still disappointment.”
On improvements in the attack
“I think our attacking threat last year was nowhere near the level this club expects.”
“Manchester United needs players who can create chances and score goals—that’s the club’s tradition. So the additions of Mbeumo, Cunha, and Šeško—these are all players who can genuinely create chances and score goals, no question.”
“I remember we played well against Tottenham last year, and in the FA Cup against Arsenal, we handled it comfortably even with 10 men for most of the game. But in terms of attack that day, we still didn’t create enough chances. So this season we really need to step it up; hopefully we can create and score more goals.”
On United’s new signings
“Like I’ve been saying, first off, these lads are absolute threats on the pitch. Opposing defenders are going to have a tough time dealing with them for 90 minutes.”
“You have to stay sharp every second because Cunha can pull the trigger from anywhere at any time, or produce a moment of magic out of nowhere; Mbeumo’s the same—he can score at the back post or curl one in from range.”
“And Šeško, this guy is an absolute giant… His physical attributes are incredible: pace, strength, height. He’s strong in the air, has great positioning for crosses, and makes smart runs in the box. I think they’ll create chances and score goals for us, which is exactly what United needs.”
On the six-man leadership group
Reports suggest that manager Amorim established a six-man leadership group this summer, including Maguire, Bruno Fernandes, Diogo Dalot, Lisandro Martínez, Hannibal Mejbri, and Tom Heaton.
“The coaching staff needed a group like this, so they picked us a few. But that in no way means players outside the group are less important to the manager or aren’t leaders—plenty of lads not in the group have great leadership qualities too. It’s really just a small team.”
Bruno is still the club’s official captain. He leads the players, and we’ll support him fully—that’s what I’ve always done. So I think maybe the outside world is reading too much into it.
“To put it simply, this group is there to feed back to the manager, work together to protect the club’s overall interests, and take some pressure off Bruno.”
“And obviously, the manager picked these six hoping we’d keep driving high standards in training day in, day out. We’re an experienced group, but like I said, people are probably focusing too much on it.”
On the current dressing room atmosphere
Reports indicate that Amorim has disbanded the "bomb squad" (a group of unused players), and the dressing room atmosphere has improved.
“The dressing room atmosphere is really good right now. Honestly, it’s great to have a fresh start after last season—we struggled so much last year.”
“By February, March time, we had nothing left to play for in the league, which was a really tough period… The Europa League was the only thing we could fight for, so everyone was fully focused on that, of course.”
“But every loss in the Premier League brought instant pressure. When the manager and his team took over, it was a tough situation. He was really focused on the Europa League at the time, and in the league, we couldn’t even settle on a consistent starting lineup.”
“I think we’ll be more competitive in the Premier League this season. Playing for United, the mood in camp at the start of the season is always positive.”
"At the end of the day, results are everything. We have to stick to that and keep this momentum going all season because we want good results and performances."
