Manchester United: Harry Maguire hails blossoming defensive partnership with Victor Lindelof
Pair have kept three clean sheets in their last six league games after a dire 18-game defensive run
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Your support makes all the difference.Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof hope their blossoming partnership can be pivotal to Manchester United‘s success in the second half of the Premier League season.
The pair have featured together at the heart of United’s defence in all but two of their league games this season following Maguire's record £80m move from Leicester City.
After a run of 18 league games without a clean sheet, United have kept three in their last six games and the new United captain is confident they now have a solid platform to build upon.
“It’s been brilliant [playing with Victor],” Maguire told United’s website. “We’ve had a good season up to now together. When you form partnerships, it takes time. I’m learning his game and he’s learning mine and I think we’re getting better.
“We’re keeping a lot more clean sheets than we were at the start of season and we’ve never really been a team which has conceded a lot of chances.
“We’ve been poor from set-plays with our defending and we’ve had a couple of great goals scored against us from outside the box, but we haven’t really been having games where David [De Gea] has had to make five or six saves, apart from maybe the Carabao Cup second leg against [Manchester] City, when David was brilliant.
“It’s a partnership that’s building and I think we’ll get better and better, and start keeping more clean sheets like we have been doing recently.”
United’s hopes of clinching a top-four spot suffered another blow ahead of the winter break, with the club enduring defeats against Liverpool and Burnley before a goalless draw against Wolves.
However, both Bruno Fernandes and deadline day loan signing Odion Ighalo will be available for Monday night’s crucial fixture against Chelsea.
“We want to win more games and I think, for every game we play together, we become better and better,” Lindelof added. “Hopefully, we can keep improving and help the team get more clean sheets and get more results.”
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