“If I play well, or assist or score, I don’t receive praise, but one poor pass or miscontrol and they blame me,” he said. “The whole team didn’t play well against Kaya, but I was one of the main targets. I feel frustrated when people attack me.
“If I feel sad on the pitch, though, I would lose everything. I can feel sad after the game. I always put pressure on myself. Before anyone blames me, I blame myself.
“My situation is why I have so much respect for Harry Maguire. He is so f****** mentally tough.”
With one win from their first four matches, Eastern are third in Group E and welcome second-place Sydney FC, who beat them 5-0 in the reverse fixture where Douglas Costa and Joe Lolley ran rings around the visitors.
But despite the seemingly mammoth task ahead, Leung said Mong Kok Stadium’s narrow playing surface could help keep the Australian side’s dangermen at bay.
“Sydney are physically really good and their pace is totally different [from what we usually face],” Leung said. “They are on another level, it is a huge gap.”
Leung added that Eastern’s precarious position means they can play with more freedom as there is less expectation they can obtain qualification.
“The pressure on us has reduced, but we must give it our all,” Leung said.
“Sydney have good combinations and try to create one-v-ones. Their crossing is excellent. [After the first match], we said, ‘if Sydney are at that level, can you imagine the standard of Manchester City’?”
Leung, who has 10 Hong Kong caps, said he would “take time at the end of the season” to decide whether to continue playing. “My body is giving me warnings,” he said.
“If I can’t improve, I will stop. I think I am still improving, but this season it slowed a bit. I have a back injury from last season, and a heel injury that’s never left me.
“Recovery takes longer. If I carry on, I want it to be at a high level. In this condition, I don’t think I can do it. I would probably have to accept less playing time to keep going.”
Despite criticism from the supporters regarding his off-field activities, Leung notes with some irony that one of his best campaigns, when he won the league with Tai Po in 2018/19, came after a lot of his extra training had been replaced by his RTHK and Now TV television duties.
“I had taken some pressure off myself,” he said. “The truth is … I worked a lot for my football career, but the return is low.
“I don’t regret [TV work], but I had to accept I would lose something … maybe that was my career. If I had focused on football, I could have achieved more and maybe played overseas.
“People are born with something they are really good at. For me, it wasn’t playing football, it was the way I communicate.”
After so much time in Hongkongers’ living rooms, Leung is a recognisable face.
“People tell me, ‘you are a good commentator’,” he said. “In my heart, I want them to say, ‘you are a good footballer’.
“I spent 20 years playing football. I tell [my wife] Diamond, ‘if people said I was a good player, my crossing was fantastic, I would be so happy’.”
https://www.scmp.com/sport/football/article/3287971/hong-kong-ace-praises-manchester-uniteds-harry-maguire-after-suffering-heavy-criticism