Manchester [UK], January 22 (ANI): Manchester United captain Harry Maguire is impressed with midfielder Paul Pogba's recent performance against Fulham and called him a "big player" of the club.

The skipper was full of compliments for his French teammate after he pulled off the extraordinary to secure three vital points against Fulham at Craven Cottage on Thursday. United defeated Fulham 2-1 to reclaim the top spot in the Premier League. The Red Devils now have 40 points in 19 games so far.

Once again, the Reds had to dig deep to claim another Premier League away win, after falling behind to an Ademola Lookman goal early on. But Edinson Cavani's equaliser was followed up by Pogba's special winner in the 65th minute.

"Paul doesn't have a weak foot. You can see Paul, over the last month or so, he's starting to get his fitness back and credit to Paul, coming back into the team and doing what he's doing at the moment is great for us. He's a big part of the dressing room, he's a big player for us. We know he can produce moments of brilliance. For sure, I hope he carries on and I'm sure he will," Maguire told the club's official website.

"Obviously, the last 10 to 15 minutes, we had to dig in and we defended well, [and] defended the box well. Obviously, they had the chance where it hits Eric [Bailly] and goes just past the post, thankfully. But for sure, we deserved the three points," he added.

The win was United's seventh after falling behind in the Premier League this season. Ole's men have now gained 21 points from losing positions.

"It shows a great mentality in the squad. 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 backline 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," Maguire said.

"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. For sure, tonight, again, we can improve," he added.

United will now take on Liverpool at Old Trafford in the FA Cup fourth-round clash on Sunday. (ANI)