Craig Burley has shared the comments Harry Maguire made which surprised him after Manchester United just about edged their FA Cup semi-final with Coventry City on Sunday.
Erik ten Hag‘s men played their part in one of the greatest FA Cup semi-finals of all-time. But they will surely wish that they had not done so.
United took a 3-0 lead against the Championship side. And it seemed that they had more than one foot in the final, where they would face Manchester City once again.
However, Coventry produced an unbelievable comeback. The Sky Blues managed to take the game to extra-time. And actually, they were desperately unlucky to not win the game during the extra period.
Craig Burley surprised by Harry Maguire comments after Manchester United win FA Cup semi-final
Ellis Simms hit the bar. And Coventry had a late, late goal disallowed by VAR for offside.
Harry Maguire told ESPN that Manchester United were a little cautious during extra-time because of their confidence in a penalty shootout.
And their confidence was not entirely misplaced. United won 4-2 in the shootout. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the celebrations were fairly muted.
And while Craig Burley insisted that Maguire was not incorrect in his overall assessment, he claimed that he was a little baffled by a couple of points the centre-back made.
“Some of those comments he made were pretty on the spot. Played like kids,” he said.
“I was surprised to hear him say they were frightened of losing the game. You’re playing Coventry in the Championship. And let me address the injuries, before anybody gets the tissues out with this sob story, every one of the United players who started this game was an international footballer, including young Kobbie Mainoo who made his debut for England recently, a terrific young player.
“Every one of them was an international, and they were playing Coventry. So please, let’s not talk about injuries. Let’s not talk about players who were out. Manchester United are in the final because there was two instances with 10 minutes to go or less, they were inches away from putting them out.”
Just one way for Erik ten Hag’s side to move past Sunday’s embarrassment this season
It is now imperative that United go on and win the trophy if they want to prove a point. Ultimately, the embarrassment of letting Coventry back into the game will be revisited if they are completely brushed aside by Manchester City.
It has been a pretty poor campaign at Old Trafford. They have certainly not made much progress at all from last year.
Some would be very surprised to see ten Hag still in charge next season.
And clearly, some will not be anymore convinced even if they go on and lift the FA Cup next month.
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