If Amorim wraps anything in cotton wool, it should be Maguire’s head – again

Harry Maguire scoring with his head to help Manchester United after surrendering a two-goal lead in Europe? We've seen that story before. But not like this, granted. Not to serve up total anarchy at Old Trafford.

At a time where Ruben Amorim is eager to wrap stars up in cotton wool to see out this Europa League campaign, Maguire's head may merit its own insurance package.

It was back in October, then under the stewardship of Erik ten Hag, when this Europa League campaign set to be unravelling before our eyes.

Manchester United cruised into a 2-0 lead in Porto, only to collapse and find themselves down 3-2 and facing a defeat that would have pushed Ten Hag to the very precipice when it came to his future at the club.

Up stepped Maguire, a substitute in Portugal that night, to head in Christian Eriksen's corner. United breathed life into a stuttering Europa League campaign that night and now they are here, 180 minutes away from the final in Bilbao.

This time Maguire was starting and working under a different manager, one that has been feeling the heat to perform amid a disastrous Premier League campaign.

Amorim is easy to root for, a manager that many believe can turn this club around.

But having cruised into a 2-0 lead, just as this side had done in Porto six months ago, he would have faced a series of very uncomfortable questions when United were losing 4-2 to a 10-man Lyon side.

Which is why with only a matter of minutes to go until a penalty shootout with the tie locked at 6-6 on aggregate Maguire's divine intervention was as enormous for Amorim as it was for Ten Hag in Porto. This one even sweeter, undoubtedly.

Peeling off at the back post there was a collective intake of breath as Casemiro's clipped ball in floated in his direction. There was not a player better qualified inside Old Trafford to thunder his head onto it.

In it flew. Goal. Tie. Semi-final. Team-mates collapsed in disbelief; Alejandro Garnacho was soon in the crowd celebrating; an ice cold kneeslide from Maguire pierced the bedlam of a night that will go down in club history as one of their finest in their rich European history.

'We tried to put Harry Maguire up front because he's the only guy who can a score a goal with his head!' Amorim said afterwards.

In a week where so much of the focus was on Andre Onana, his chirping and his errors that many were ready to bury him over, there was something fitting about marathon man Maguire sealing this special night.

Maguire has been written off time and time again at Manchester United. Stripped of the captaincy and floated for moves in the past, Maguire has always held his nerve, backed himself and has continued to deliver enormous moments.

'In a career, you always have spells when you go up and down, and find yourself a little bit out of form,' Maguire said in the lead up to the game; as pertinent now as it was then.

'It is about how you build yourself back in and find that confidence to perform again.'

He continued: 'Try your best to ignore [criticism], focus on your job, come in on a daily basis and do your best.

'I always said to myself, "tomorrow night is another game of football, go on that pitch and give it absolutely everything". When you walk off you say to yourself, "I've left everything out there". No matter how you perform, that is only what you can do.'

Bruno Fernandes has often been the man tasked with rescuing United this season but Maguire has now produced three game-winning headers with his last three goals.

With Joshua Zirkzee out for the season, Rasmus Hojlund struggling for form and 17-year-old Chido Obi not available in Europe, Amorim knows full well he will need to lean on Maguire again at both ends of the pitch.

Porto's intervention led to a 21-minute dressing room lock-in in a desperate bid to arrest their slump. On a famous night at Old Trafford it was one of uninhabited celebration.

Maguire is a perfect example of never writing someone off. His unwavering mentality, at the most crucial time, rubbed off on this most confusing of football teams.