Harry Maguire has urged his Manchester United teammates to 'take responsibility' for the team's dire form as pressure continues to mount on beleagured boss Erik Ten Hag.
The centre-back proved the unlikely hero on Thursday night after his last-minute header rescued a point against Porto in a chaotic 3-3 draw in the Europa League.
Intense scrutiny was already focussed on the Red Devils after a humiliating 3-0 loss at home to Tottenham Hotspur just four days earlier which saw goals from Brennan Johnson, Dejan Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke sink a woeful United.
Maguire has been left out in the cold this season, not starting a Premier League match since the Old Trafford side slumped to a 2-1 defeat against Brighton on August 24.
Now the England international has insisted that it is the players who should bear the brunt of the blame for United's misfortunes and not Ten Hag, the Guardian reports.
Harry Maguire has urged his Manchester United teammates to 'take responsibility' for the team's dire form
He said: 'Obviously it's not good enough. As a footballer it's easy to look around and blame other people and blame your teammate or the staff or tactics. You've got to look at yourself.
'We're the ones that go on the pitch. We're the ones that have to defend. You've got to take responsibility. And every one of us has to do better in these moments.
'When we're under pressure, I feel as a team over the last year or so, we've ended up conceding and that can't happen.
'We've got to be able to withstand that pressure. Have better principles within ourselves. We've got to up the tempo when we're defending our box a lot better.'
Maguire also made the surprising assertion that this United outfit were performing to a higher level than that of last season.
In February, the Red Devils beat an in-form Villa side and, as they prepare to face the same opposition again on Sunday, the defender feels confident they can repeat the feat.
'We've got to take belief from what we did last season there,' he said. 'It was on fire there [Villa's form]. Then we went and got the victory. And we feel like we're playing better than we were last season.
'The results haven't been there. The performance was really poor against Spurs. Apart from that, I feel like we should have more points on the board. But they're not, so we need to do something about it starting with Sunday.
'It's a tough game but what a great place to go, play football and try to get three points.'
United lie 14th in the table, albeit with a game in hand on many of the teams above them, and have one just one of their last five in what has been a woeful start to the season.
Villa, meanwhile, are on top of the world after beating Bayern Munich 1-0 in the Champions League on Wednesday night thanks to a wonder goal from super-sub Jhon Duran.