Man United captain Harry Maguire has played more minutes than anyone in 2019/20

It was also recently revealed that Maguire played two months of the season with a hip injury sustained in January – the same month he was named as the club’s new captain, following Ashley Young’s transfer to Internazionale.

The imposing, cultured centre-back’s influence has only grown since then. While United’s upturn in form has rightly led to huge praise for new acquisition Bruno Fernandes and his impact on the team’s goalscoring, the defence has also been quietly improving.

Solskjaer’s side kept just nine clean sheets in the opening 29 games of the campaign. In the next 31 games, they kept 18.

Maguire has been a huge part of that progression, and has undoubtedly been a brilliant signing for Solskjaer and the club, after several years where United struggled to find a settled central defence, with injury problems often besieging players like Eric Bailly, Phil Jones and, to a lesser degree, Chris Smalling.

Maguire has become United’s rock at the back, and his determined, resilient contribution this season deserves recognition – as this remarkable stat underlines.

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