Harry Maguire sheds new light on why Ruben Amorim is having a ‘hard time’ at Man United, saying he is ‘the opposite’ of Erik ten Hag – but blames players who ‘weren’t good enough’

Harry Maguire revealed why he believes Ruben Amorim is finding life at Manchester United “tough” after his nightmare start to the job – but put the blame on the team, insisting they weren’t “good enough”.

United plummeted to 14th in the Premier League after a dismal 2-0 defeat at Wolves on Boxing Day, the fifth defeat in 10 games for Amorim.

Matheus Cunha opened the scoring from a corner, the second time in a week that United had conceded in the same manner, before Hwang Hee-chan slotted the ball into the net in stoppage time to inflict further disgrace on the Red Devils .

Bruno Fernandes was also sacked after showing two yellow cards on another terrible night for Amorim, and Maguire has shed light on the new head coach’s baptism of fire at Old Trafford, pointing out differences to Erik ten Hag’s methods.

“I think it’s really difficult for the manager and his team to come here because it’s not like he’s coming here with a similar style to the old manager,” Maguire said.

“They are the opposite of what they demand and what they want. That’s why it’s difficult for them because they know that they want to work with the team on the training pitch and improve things, the defensive principles and the set pieces.

Harry Maguire has revealed why Ruben Amorim finds life at Manchester United “hard”.

United suffered a 2-0 defeat at Wolves on Boxing Day, Amorim’s fifth defeat in ten games

Maguire pointed out differences between the demands of Amorim and Erik ten Hag

“So it’s been a tough month of games but we don’t want to use it as an excuse. “This club demands to win and at the moment we’re not.

“It’s not good enough for us and the fans.”

Amorim laments the lack of time available to work with his players on the training pitch, with set pieces being a particular weakness. United have now conceded ten goals from dead balls this season and Maguire fears they will be targeted.

“When something like this happens again and again you can’t really put it down to luck, but it’s hard to accept that teams have scored twice from a corner,” Maguire added. “I think it’s a foul on Tottenham, that’s very clear.” I haven’t seen that here again.

“Sometimes at set pieces you have to hold your hands up and say there’s not much you can do about it, but there are others where you have to look at yourself and improve. “I think the Bournemouth game was tough – a great one Header, a great ball.

“It’s disappointing tonight to only have 10 men, not really giving them anything, looking really solid in the second half and conceding (like that) again, especially in the first part of the game. “Set pieces are very important in football games and they decide the game.

“Many games where the score is close and the score is 50:50 are decided by the first goal.” “The first goal was far too often a set piece against us and it’s disappointing.”

Maguire continued: “How do we solve the problem?” Work more on the training pitch. I think teams may now be targeting our set piece area.

Ten Hag was sacked in October but his successor has missed out on becoming the new manager

United are 14th in the Premier League and Maguire blames the players

“The strange thing is that I don’t feel like we’re allowing them many chances.”

“They had a couple of set pieces tonight and we handled them really well and then they scored after a goal.”

“I think it’s about hard work. Keep faith and things will change. “We have players who can defend the penalty area well. They will change; “We just have to stick together.”

When Amorim was asked yesterday whether United now had to worry about the teams below him, he replied: “Yes.” “At this moment we just have to survive and win sometimes.”

He also added that United needed to forget about qualifying for European football.

“No, no, no, no,” he replied when asked if they could think about Europe. “We have a lot of things to work on at our club, both on and off the pitch.”

Amorim stressed he has “no idea” how long it will take for United to improve.