Manchester United likely to secure Maguire, Diallo deals in January transfer window

Manchester United FC winger Amad Diallo is close to bagging a new deal with the club, as the outfit will also trigger a year-long extension to keep Harry Maguire in the squad, as said by manager Ruben Amorim.

“Amad is near, and we are happy to continue with Harry,” Amorim told reporters on Friday ahead of their league clash with Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday.

“We will trigger our option. (Maguire) needs to improve as a leader because we are starving for leaders on the pitch.”

Amorim’s team are facing Liverpool on Sunday and are currently placed 14th in the table. They have been defeated in five out fo their last six league matches.

Amorim has said that anything can happen in one game, as he believes that his side has benefitted from having a couple of training sessions this week with no games on Wednesday.

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“If you talk about the season … in the moment they are better than us but we can win any game,” he said.

“We have to focus not on the context but on the performance. We need to improve the simple things to play these kinds of games.

“Of course, it is a difficult moment because we are losing too many matches and we are going to be facing the best team of this year, but with training… we want to improve the performance compared to the last game (a 2-0 loss to Newcastle on Monday).”

Maguire has been undergoing a rough patch with United, as defensive blunders by him led to Newcastle United FC scoring twice on Monday.

“It is the same as Josh (Zirkzee), there are moments in the career of a player that are different and I think he coped very well with his struggles,” Amorim said. “(Maguire) is a leader, he has to improve that part and he has to improve our game.”

Zirkzee was substituted off in the 33rd minute on Monday as he heard a lot of boos from the Old Trafford squad. He then went straight to the tunnel, in a situation where it appeared as if he was holding back his tears.

“(Zirkzee’s) situation is the same as the other players. He had that situation during a game, which is really hard for any player, but this can happen. They understand it is part of football. Sometimes you are in a good moment in your career, other times things don’t happen the way you like,” Amorim said.

“So he is focused, he trained very well, but we have to understand sometimes that the players feel that lack of confidence and then in the game they have difficult moments. We have to move on to the next game.”