Manchester United captain Harry Maguire looked nervous in their Champions League last 16 clash with Atletico Madrid.
A passage of play where he dallied and turned twice in a deep position before playing a poor backpass to David de Gea summed up his night.
That was not why United lost the game on the night, but it didn’t help and the England international failed to put in a big performance on the big stage to get over his recent struggles.
The captain spoke to BEIN Sports after the game and said that United lost their shape as the game wore on as they chased a vital goal.
“We know when you play a team like this that you have all the ball and they have numbers that you have to break down to concede the first goal makes life so much harder,” said Maguire.
“But we had enough time in the game, enough possession, enough crossing opportunities to get the equaliser tonight and we didn’t do it.
“We felt like we did enough tonight to get that equaliser. As a team, we’ve got to learn from it and not lose our discipline.
“I felt in the last 20-30 minutes of the game we should have been creating a little bit more and pushing. But we got frustrated, lost our shape and lost the momentum in the game.”
United losing discipline and shape as they chase a game is not new.
Last month, when United failed to turn a 1-1 draw against Southampton into a win, Gary Neville said that Ralf Rangnick’s men broke every rule in the book on how to chase a goal.
That means not giving fouls or the ball away, forcing the play, losing your discipline and chasing the referee.
United did fall into some or all of those traps last night and it meant that there was no grandstand finish at Old Trafford.
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