Erik ten Hag and Harry Maguire agree on Man Utd's main issue as crisis deepens

Manchester United have to tighten up their defence if they are to turn things around following a dreadful start to the season.

That is the opinion of and , who both spoke honestly about the team’s failings after in the on Thursday night. United were in control with the score at 2-0 after 20 minutes following soft goals from and Rasmus Hojlund, but easily surrendered that advantage.

Pepe pulled a goal back for Porto before in the box to score from close range and put the hosts ahead. Porto caused United all sorts of problems, easily playing through midfield to create overloads in dangerous areas.

Maguire climbed off the bench to head in a 91st-minute equaliser from a corner to rescue a point, but it didn’t mask the team’s problems. United have now won just three of their 10 matches this season, while they have conceded three or more goals on 24 occasions since Ten Hag took charge in 2022 – more than any other side in the .

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“Defending, we’re switching off,” Ten Hag admitted post-match. “We concede the first goal totally unnecessarily and then you know when you light up the fire in this stadium, in this ambience, then it becomes really tough.

“We addressed it at half-time and then you concede the third one, so unnecessary. It’s not good defending again. It’s also to do with some willingness in such moments.” Ten Hag brought on Maguire and Jonny Evans for De Ligt and Lisandro Martinez in the 79th minute in a clear admission of his defence’s vulnerability.

Maguire spent most of the game watching from the bench and was of where things were going wrong. "You can talk about leadership,” he told TNT Sports. “I think it's an easy word to throw out.

"The boys on the pitch have obviously got together - they've got to realise that it's happened far too many times. They've got to realise that after every time we concede we've got to reset and refocus and make sure we go back to the game plan that got us the lead in the first place.

"It's something we do need to improve on and it's something we'll speak about amongst the players. If we want to be successful we can't be conceding too many goals in as many minutes as we have done this season."

United are now four games without a win – and things aren’t about to get any easier, with a trip to Aston Villa coming on Sunday. Villa are riding high after beating 1-0 in the and have been imperious at home under .

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