Harry Maguire agrees with Ralf Rangnick that Manchester United made far too many unforced errors in their Premier League draw against Newcastle.
United shared the spoils with Eddie Howe's side on Monday night as they failed to hit the ground running after a 16-day break from their last competitive match, with Rangnick stating 'the biggest problem was the mistakes his side made."
The Reds had been scheduled to play Brentford and Brighton over the festive period but saw both matches postponed after a COVID outbreak at the club which forced them to temporarily shut down their Carrington training complex.
Many of the players affected by the virus started for United at St James' Park, and Maguire admits the time off appeared to have a detrimental impact on their performance.
"Well, no 16-day break in the middle of a football season is going to help you," Maguire told MUTV.
"The training ground has been shut, half the lads plying today are recovering from the virus. So, of course, it is not going to help us. We don't want to use it as an excuse, but, of course, it has a big impact on the game. The way we started, the rhythm we got into, the first 20 minutes wasn't good enough and then I think you saw the last 20 minutes too, when we really wanted to push and squeeze them back after we got the equaliser.
"I feel like the intensity and the tempo, maybe we ran out of steam a little bit, which is understandable considering the situation we have been in. But it is not just the tempo and intensity that we play at; it is taking care of the ball and playing with concentration. We didn't do well enough today; we gave the ball away far too much. Every player on the pitch, just simple passes when we had great opportunities to hurt them. We were far too sloppy with our possession."
Maguire was keen to reiterate that the long break was not an excuse for the dropped points and, instead, he insisted it was primarily down to the simple mistakes he and his teammates were making.
The club captain continued: "I think that's the frustrating thing because we can all look at it as 16 days off, recovering from a virus, we've had so many positive tests, people with symptoms, people without symptoms. It's been a real mixed bag for everyone at the football club.
"But you can't make an excuse for sloppy passes. The opportunities we had, especially in the first-half, the number of balls we gave away and the opportunities they gave to counter-attack is exactly what they were playing for. They were playing for sitting deep, playing on the counter, and we gave them far too much. In the last ten or fifteen minutes, I thought the first 30 minutes of the second-half we played with a lot more domination and momentum, and in the last fifteen, we have got to control it a lot better. We didn't manage to do that. It looked like we had run out of steam out there."
