Manchester United captain Harry Maguire said his side’s struggles at set-pieces had left him feeling "embarrassed".
The Englishman headed home Ralf Rangnick’ s side’s first set-piece goal of the season in United’s 4-2 away victory against Leeds United.
Maguire showed excellent determination to stoop above the Leeds defence and nod Luke Shaw’s sumptuous in-swinging corner in the first-half.
However, the former Leicester City defender’s header was the first time United had scored from a corner in 139 attempts.
And with a huge tone of relief prominent in his voice, Maguire said he was very pleased to finally find the back of the net from a set piece.
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“Embarrassing. Every time I see the stat I feel embarrassed myself,” Maguire said when asked about United’s set-piece woes.
“I’m a big part in that set-play routine and trying to score from corners but as a team, as a group, we’ve been nowhere near good enough.
“It’s a big part of the game and for sure if we score more from corners and set-plays we’ll be higher in the table.
“I know you can play all this pretty football but set-plays are a massive part of the game and this season’s been nowhere near good enough on that behalf.”
Maguire’s header got the ball rolling for the Reds who appeared to be on course for a routine victory at Elland Road.
Jadon Sancho, arguably United’s man of the match, contributed his first Premier League assist by floating a perfect cross for Bruno Fernandes to head home on the stroke of half-time.
However, a fired up and resurgent Leeds side came flying out of the traps in the second half.
Rodrigo halved the deficit, albeit extremely fortuitously, by mis-hitting a cross that flew over David de Gea’s head and into the back of the net.
Barely one minute later, Leeds levelled the contest after Raphinha tapped home Daniel James’ perfect cross at the back-post.
Unfortunately for Marcelo Bielsa’s side, United regained their composure, the possession, and eventually the lead, as Sancho carved open an opportunity for second-half substitute Fred to smash home from a tight angle.
As Leeds piled forward in search for a second equaliser, United picked them off and regained the lead through Anthony Elanga.
But while Maguire was pleased with United’s result, which increased the gap from fifth placed West Ham United to four points, Maguire believes his side have to learn from their poor start to the second-half.
“Yeah, I think that’s the most pleasing aspect of the game. We got to start the second-half better for sure,” Maguire added.
“The first goal is obviously really lucky on their behalf, it gets them right back in the game and then they scored a good goal and we had to fight back, we had to stick together.
“We knew it was a tough place to come but we knew we had the qualities to hurt them.
“We spoke about it at half-time that we need to score more goals in the second-half and we managed to do that.”
