Manchester United defender Harry Maguire has admitted he felt a personal responsiblity for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's sacking.
While interim head coach Michael Carrick's brief time back in the Old Trafford hotseat has evoked memories of Solskjaer's tenure, the Norwegian is widely recognised as the best permanent manager the club has had in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era, though it ended unceremoniously in 2021 when losing 4-1 at Watford, a game in which Maguire was sent off.
Maguire arrived at Old Trafford shortly after Solskjaer was given the permanent job and enjoyed his best spell of form for the Red Devils under the former United forward, given the captain's armband just six months after his move from Leicester.
Things took a downturn in the aftermath of two penalty shoot-out defeats for club and country, with England losing the Euro 2020 final shortly after United lost the Europa League final to Villarreal. Maguire admitted to the Manchester Evening News that the losses took their toll on him, with Solskjaer losing his job and Maguire the captaincy in less than 12 months.
"I was coming off the back of two big final defeats. The Euros on penalties, Europa League on penalties. I probably just didn't handle that as well as I should have," said Maguire.
"There were lots of different things in that season. Losing Ole was a big, big loss. I felt a lot of responsibility for that as performances leading up to Ole losing his job weren't good enough.
"The back end of the season was a mess. It really was a mess. I was the captain, and I took a lot of the brunt for it. We were all over the place, the back six months of that season.
"It wasn't to do with Ralf, it was more to do with how us as players and as a squad handled it. I just felt like we didn't handle it as well as we should have with an interim manager coming in, compared to how we've handled it this time under Michael."
Since the club tried to offload their former skipper, the 33-year-old has been rejuvenated, signing a contract extension at Old Trafford, regaining his place in the England squad, and looks set for a place on the plane to North America over the summer, and cites his self-belief as the reason for his return to form.
"I just kept my head down," Maguire added. "I have great self-belief, more importantly, that I'm a top player, and I believe that. I think that's what helps me when things are tough."
