Harry Maguire is the Manchester United first defender to win the Premier League Player of the Month award since Nemanja Vidic in 2009 with Old Trafford team-mates Luke Shaw and Alejandro Garnacho full of praise for his stunning resurgence.
Three games, three wins, three clean sheets. Three awards too.
Alongside Erik ten Hag (the Premier League’s Manager of the Month) and Alejandro Garnacho (given the Goal of the Month gong for his Everton worldie), Harry Maguire will return home from training on Friday with another award to go alongside his League Cup winners’ medal.
Harry Maguire is Premier League Player of the Month
Maguire’s rags-to-remarkable transformation also brings an end to a 14-year wait for Manchester United defender to be named the Premier League Player of the Month.
The last time that happened was all the way back in January 2009, Vidic scoring twice in the midst of a scarcely-believable run of 14 consecutive top-flight clean sheets.
“Since he got back into the side, I think Harry’s been our most consistent player,” Gary Pallister, a former Red Devils stalwart himself, tells the Man United website.
“He’s shown that he’s got a lot of resilience, a lot of character about him to bounce back because there was so much negativity around. Nobody would have blamed him if he had left to try and forge a new career.”
According to David Moyes, West Ham had a £30 million bid accepted by Man United for Maguire in August, shortly after he was stripped of the captain’s armband. It is to his eternal credit, then, that Maguire put his head down, puffed his chest out and set about rebuilding a United career which looked dead in the water only a few months ago.
First since Nemanja Vidic 14 years ago
“If you believed everything you read and heard, it looked like his days were numbered,” Pallister adds. “But football works that way sometimes. You just need a glimmer of hope to get back in the side and you prove yourself once again, and that’s what’s Harry’s done.”
Man United have now won six out of their last eight Premier League games with Maguire marshalling the back four, the England international a stand-out performer once again during the 2-1 midweek victory over Chelsea.
“Well deserved bro,” was Luke Shaw’s reaction to Maguire’s POTM triumph, praise echoed by fellow award-winner Garnacho on Instagram.
Maguire is likely to keep his place when Bournemouth arrive at Old Trafford on Saturday.
from United In Focus https://ift.tt/1V6c705