Harry Maguire admitted he could have stopped Fulham’s winning goal with major decision

Manchester United centre-back Harry Maguire admitted he could have prevented Fulham from scoring their winner.

Alex Iwobi netted a dramatic stoppage-time goal as Fulham claimed a 2-1 victory at Old Trafford on Saturday.

Fulham opened the scoring in the 65th minute through Calvin Bassey, only for United, who had won their last five matches, to equalise via Harry Maguire.

But Iwobi finished off a 97th-minute counter-attack to leave Ten Hag’s men some eight points adrift of fourth-placed Aston Villa.

After the game, Maguire admitted he could have prevented Fulham from scoring their winner.

The England international, who was on a booking, had the opportunity to foul Adama Traore ahead of Iwobi’s goal. It would have been a cynical move but one likely to have prevented a defeat.

After the game, Maguire told MUTV: "At the start of the second half, we lost Casemiro and that set us back as well. We didn't find the rhythm for the first 15 or 20 minutes and they got a deserved lead.

"It was a very soft goal to concede again, set-plays is an area we knew they were strong on from the first half. We did everything we could to get back into the game and we deserved the equaliser.

"The belief was there we could win the game and, in the end, we have probably thrown too many bodies forward and left the middle of the pitch open.

Maguire admitted he could have prevented Fulham's winner (Getty)

"They have punished us with a clinical counter-attack. In hindsight now, we can all sit here and say we should have been more cautious, we were too naive, we can look back and I'm sure we'll assess it for areas we can improve on.

"They're bringing on a player [Traore] with fresh legs and it's pretty lucky how the ball falls to him and then we know that he's good at that. I was on a booking myself and in hindsight again, I maybe should have just brought him down, but then you miss next week [due to suspension].

"It's easy to say now, but yeah, disappointing to lose the game. The lads gave everything and their reaction when we went 1-0 down was brilliant."

Topics: Manchester United, Fulham, Premier League, Harry Maguire, Erik Ten Hag, Alex Iwobi

Chris Byfield

Sport journalist with experience writing on football, rugby, boxing and the Olympics. I'm also a Crystal Palace fan. Please don't hold this against me.