Harry Maguire has responded to Erik ten Hag's challenge at Manchester United

What a difference a few weeks can make.

From struggling for minutes to being a regular starter, the current landscape of Harry Maguire's Manchester United career has changed in the blink of an eye. He followed up his man-of-the-match performance against Sheffield United on Saturday by getting United out of jail against FC Copenhagen on Tuesday evening.

Starting for the third game in a row, the centre-back scored the only goal in a must-win contest at Old Trafford, heading home Christian Eriksen's pinpoint cross. It was his first goal since February 2022 and arguably one of the most important of his United career.

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Had he not connected with Eriksen's delivery, United's hopes of progressing to the last-16 of the Champions League would now be hanging by a very fine thread. Instead, they now stand a good opportunity of escaping Group A.

Though his match-winning goal was, quite rightly, the headline act of his performance against the Danes, Maguire, despite a slightly shaky start, did very little wrong at centre-back once again. After back-to-back starts alongside Jonny Evans, he was rejoined at the heart of the back four by Raphael Varane.

Though United rode their luck at certain junctures, especially in the first half when Copenhagen clipped the woodwork through Diogo Goncalves, on the whole they defended reasonably well. Maguire was the standout member of the back four, fully justifying his selection for the third game running.

After it was confirmed last month that Lisandro Martinez would face a lengthy spell on the sidelines with a recurrence of the foot injury he