Harry Maguire defends Marcus Rashford after his night to forget at Newcastle and insists his Man United team-mates ‘know what he’s about’… as he admits ‘it hasn’t clicked for him this season’

• Manchester United fell to a drab 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United on Saturday
• Harry Maguire defended his teammate Marcus Rashford amid criticism
• Manchester United in a mess – they have a collapse in them – It’s All Kicking Off 

Harry Maguire has stepped up to defend Marcus Rashford from criticism squared at him by TNT Sports pundit Jermaine Jenas.

Jenas believed that some of Manchester United’s players – including Rashford – were sending a message to the manager Erik ten Hag with their body language during Saturday night’s dire 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United.

But Maguire said that the Man United camp know what Rashford brings to the table, although this season’s struggles have been evident for all to see both in and out of the club. 

As reported by the Mirror, Maguire said: ‘Marcus had an unbelievable season last season. This season, it hasn’t clicked for him. He’s working hard. Everyone in that dressing room knows what he’s about.’

When reflecting on the team’s performance, the 30-year-old defender added: ‘It’s been a tough week with three away days in six days. To be fair, in the first half, we looked like we’d played our third away day in six days.

Harry Maguire has stepped up to defend Marcus Rashford from criticism after latest defeat 

Maguire admitted Rashford had struggled this season, but said his teammates have his back

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‘The tempo wasn’t there, the intensity wasn’t there. They were a lot better than us. We grew into the game, but we didn’t have enough in the end.’

Anthony Gordon got Newcastle’s only goal of the game as they were able to see off Man United, to end their week on the road on a sour note. 

After the trio of games away from Old Trafford, the Red Devils now have three home games on the bounce, with Chelsea and Bournemouth both heading to Manchester, before a crucial Champions League fixture against Bayern Munich.

However, the defeat to Newcastle, coupled with the midweek draw in Europe, mean that Ten Hag has to try and figure out what to do with his players to get them in the best position for the rest of the season – and for some pundits, that includes navigating around the thoughts and actions of the players themselves.

Maguire admitted their performance started like a team with three away games back-to-back

Jermaine Jenas had attacked Rashford in a scathing assessment of Man United’s performance 

Following the Newcastle defeat, Jenas told TNT Sports: ‘I personally thought tonight there were signs that there were a couple of players in there for me that either wasn’t happy with the tactics that was put to them or wasn’t happy with their positions on the pitch. 

‘The body language of a team tells you a lot at times and there were a few of them that were sending a message to the manager.

‘I thought today Marcus Rashford on that right hand side in particular, the way that he just walked around throwing his arms around was one for me that said “look, I don’t want to be playing on this right hand side”.’

Manchester United have four days until their next Premier League fixture at home to Chelsea on Wednesday evening, having some extra time to prepare with the Blues in action against Brighton on Sunday afternoon.  

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