Harry Maguire claims Erik ten Hag has got Manchester United’s players “buzzing” after admitting last season fell well below their standards.
Maguire suffered badly in a nightmare campaign which saw Ole Gunnar Solskjaer get sacked and Ralf Rangnick could not save them from having their worst season in Premier League history. Former Ajax boss ten Hag has now taken over at Old Trafford and Maguire insists they are ready to put right what went wrong last season.
Maguire said: “We’ve had a really low season so for a new manager to come in, I’m sure the first day of pre-season everybody will be buzzing around, doing their best to impress and everyone coming back in shape because we have a big season ahead of us for sure.
“We know we are going to improve. We’ve got to improve and we’ve got to do better because last season was nowhere near good enough. The new manager will bring in a lot of positive energy the lads will go with that.
“As players, as individuals, as a team, the confidence of the team, you could see towards the end of the season, the confidence wasn’t there, and the belief in the group, and the belief to go and get results after results because that’s what the club demands. That’s what it expects.
“The reality was that we weren’t doing that. When you are not winning matches, the confidence and belief of the team goes down. It’s behind us now. We have a new manager in, one that we are really looking forward to working with and we are looking forward to a good start.”
Maguire is still at a loss to explain why it went so badly wrong at Old Trafford as they finished sixth and led to club legend Solskjaer getting the sack.
Maguire added: “It’s been a tough season, no hiding away from that, very disappointing from the goals we had at the start of the season to where we were at the end of the season. As captain of the team, it was nowhere near good enough throughout the season.”
“The last few games of the season you could see that it was nowhere good enough and it looked like the results especially showed, the performances weren’t there.
“Yes, it was a very disappointing season individually but also for me personally and collectively as a group.”
