Q&A: Must-read with Harry and Victor

Victor, Harry is our new skipper – what would you say about him as a leader?

VL: He’s been brilliant. He’s a presence on the pitch and off the pitch as well. He takes responsibility and as partners we try to take responsibility and talk, not just to each other, but to our team-mates as well; Harry has been brilliant with that. He totally deserves to wear the armband, it’s a big responsibility and he’s been doing it in a very good way.

Harry, have you felt any different since becoming captain or have you just embraced the great honour that it is?

HM: Like you say it’s a great honour to be the captain of this great club. I’ve not really felt any different or acted any different, I see myself as, like Vic says, quite a presence on the pitch and quite vocal around the lads. We’re a young group and we need experience and we have the likes of Vic, David, Juan who are really experienced around the dressing room and we need to help these young boys develop and make sure we develop into a top team and go and start challenging for big trophies.

When you think of other famous centre-back partnerships are there any you looked up to growing up? Of course at United we think of the likes of Bruce and Pallister and Ferdinand and Vidic…

VL: Those ones you talk about were really good players. Of course Ferdinand and Vidic are closer to my time so I saw them a lot growing up and they were great players. And we’re just trying to do our best and to help the team become as good as possible.

HM: Yes of course growing up I watched Rio and Vidic playing at centre-back and they had a great partnership for a few years. Partnerships can grow and they can build but at the end of the day you get judged on how many games you win and how many trophies you lift at the end of your career. We’re starting new and afresh but come a few years’ time that’s where we want to be, we want to be lifting trophies.

We’ve talked about the defensive parts of your game but no doubt you both want to keep adding goals as well…

HM: Definitely. My first goal [for the club] was a great feeling. I decided to hit it as hard as I could and it found the top corner. It’s something I’ve always had in my game and this season I’ve been disappointed with not getting a goal from a set-play, I’ve always averaged three or four from set-plays. Don’t get me wrong I’ve had good chances, against Newcastle and West Ham I should score. But it’s coming and I’m sure I’ll score soon and hopefully sooner rather than later.