Ruben Amorim explains Harry Maguire striker decision amid damning Man Utd stat | OneFootball

Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim explained his decision to field Harry Maguire as an emergency striker against Nottingham Forest on Tuesday by claiming that his centre-back can be more dangerous in the box than his natural forwards.

Former United academy graduate Anthony Elanga scored the game's only goal at the end of a lung-busting run in the opening five minutes at the City Ground. After toiling away for 88 goalless minutes, Amorim brought Maguire off the bench to line up alongside Joshua Zirkzee for the closing exchanges.

The towering defender had three efforts, the last of which was hurriedly cleared off the line by Murillo. Maguire's shots were worth a combined expected goals (xG) of 0.59. United's three other forwards - Alejandro Garnacho, Rasmus Hojlund and Zirkzee - boasted just 0.22 xG between them.

Over the space of eight minutes, Maguire racked up more xG than Hojlund has been able to muster across his previous nine Premier League appearances.

Harry Maguire had three shots at the City Ground / Marc Atkins/GettyImages

"In the end of the game, when the opponent is just protecting the box, if you look at the defenders of Nottingham, they are really comfortable," Amorim explained. "And then with a line of six, not five, a line of six, we can reach the final third but then we have to put the ball inside the box because it's hard to make the combinations to get inside the box to score goal.

"Harry Maguire, when he's attacking in set-pieces, is maybe the best player we have in our team, so inside the box, you are not a defender, you are a striker. So it was that idea to put I one man who is really good in the air to score a goal."

Garnacho endured a particularly frustrating evening. The Argentine forward was shrugged off by Elanga when he broke the deadlock and rattled off six shots of his own - all of which failed to even force Matz Sels into a save.

Amorim was quick to defend his misfiring forward. "The most important thing again for me is when he needs to run back, he's running back," the Portuguese boss insisted. "Of course, we want a player who has one against one, sometimes he's trying too much, he has [Patrick] Dorgu to make a movement, but I think he wants to help the team in doing his best. Sometimes he doesn't make the best choice, but that you can point to any player today."