Harry Maguire wants Manchester United’s defence to improve from set pieces and to nullify how many chances they give opponents.

That’s what the United captain said while speaking alongside Victor Lindelof about his first season in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s back four. Maguire believes that, although he helped United keep nine clean sheets in their past 11 games, it’s not always about recording a shut-out.

At the time of the Premier League suspension, due to coronavirus, only league leaders Liverpool and Leicester City had conceded few goals than United.

Maguire was asked which game stands out this season as a defensive performance.

“I think like there [have been] a lot of games that we’ve done well in,” Maguire told United’s official website.

“When we keep a clean sheet is doesn’t always mean that we’ve played well. We’ve conceded goals this season and sometimes played better in those games compared to the matches in which we’ve not conceded any.

“For example when we went to Manchester City [in the Carabao Cup], David [De Gea] kept us in the game when on another day it could have been two or three goals for them.

“But then, thinking off the top of my head, we played Everton at home and they didn’t really have a chance in the game and we conceded a goal.

“So it’s not just about clean sheets, it’s about limiting the opposition’s chances that they’re creating. There have been numerous games where we’ve been excellent as a defence and that’s what we need to replicate.

“There have been others we need to improve on and we will improve.”

Maguire then highlighted set pieces as an area in particular that United should target for improvement.

It is not yet known when competitive football will resume and the United squad aren’t even training as a group, amid the current COVID-19 lockdown situation, but they will be keen to continue their impressive defensive record when given the chance to play.

“We want to improve and there’s no doubt we can get better as individuals and as a partnership and as a back four,” Maguire added.

“We’ve got to keep working on things and getting better and I think you’ve seen the progress this season. Like I said we don’t concede many chances but we’ve been poor from set-plays and that was something we worked on during the winter training camp [in February] to try and nail down not conceding soft goals from set-plays because they’ve lost us many points this season.

“We work hard every day in training as a back four and a defence as a whole, for example we’ve been working on some three v threes and covering each other and, like I said, we’ll get better the more we play together.”