Harry Maguire claims Manchester United will continue to ignore the Premier League table, despite sitting top of it, with the Red Devils looking to turn their doubters into believers.
Few expected Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side to stake a serious claim for the English top-flight crown in 2020-21.
They do, however, sit at the summit after reaching the halfway stage, with 40 points collected from 19 fixtures.
Plenty are now suggesting that United have what it takes to chase down a first title triumph in eight years, with priceless consistency being rediscovered – particularly away from home.
Maguire is pleased to be silencing critics, with the Red Devils having been written off ever since Sir Alex Ferguson headed into retirement, but he says nobody at Old Trafford is getting carried away.
The United captain told MUTV: “We don’t speak about the table. We speak about the improvement.
“Two years ago, you wouldn’t say that we would challenge at the top of the table, for sure. We as players believe that we can; we expect that we can. This club expects to be challenging for the best trophies.
“It’s all about improvement, it’s all about improving each game, each training session. We need to improve on things.
“It’s nice to have the points tally but there’s a long way to go and a long way for us to make sure we’re still there at the end of the season.
“We don’t look at the table. It’s one game at a time. Another big game on Sunday and we’re looking forward to that now.”
Another meeting with arch-rivals Liverpool is next on the agenda for United, with the Reds due in Manchester for an FA Cup fourth-round clash on Sunday.
Solskjaer’s side should be brimming with confidence heading into that contest, with another come-from-behind success secured in their last outing away at Fulham – with Edinson Cavani and Paul Pogba getting the goals in a 2-1 win.
“It shows a great mentality in the squad,” Maguire added on the Red Devils’ fighting spirit and ability to grind out results. “We do believe that we can get three points from any position.
“The first five minutes, we didn’t start well enough. It’s a poor goal to concede, it’s something we’ve worked on, as a back line we were all over the place. It’s unlike us and what we’ve been in recent weeks, so it’s something we need to work on. We’ll look at it, we’ll speak about it and we’ll improve, but the main part was the reaction.
“The reaction from the lads, to put pressure on, to go after them, not feeling sorry for ourselves and [to] get that equaliser. We managed to do that, deservedly.
“We started the second half so much better than we did in the first and I felt it was a matter of time until we scored that goal. Like you say, the last 10-15 minutes were a bit nervy. The boys managed to see it out very well.”