Maguire is just the latest United player to have this confidence destroyed by the (Social) Media

RedRoach

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Last season Maguire made his mistakes, as did the rest of the defence, but make no mistake the defence was not the problem since we scored only 60 goals and had we had a fully functioning attack many of the draws / defeats would have ended up as wins.

The thing is there is no flawless defender, I have watched VVD several times and he has made several errors that have led to goals that have subsequently been papered over by Liverpool's superb attack.

Queue the end of the season and Maguire's trip to Greece followed by the hysterics in the media and since then it has been a downward spiral with even former United players in for him.

He seems to have become the latest target for the crazies on Social Media to crucify. Look at any thread on Twitter about Maguire and it is disgraceful.

Now this is not the first time this has happened. Smalling suffered the same fate. Many signings have turned into turds as soon as they have joined United as the cesspit of hysteria surrounding the club on Social Media and the Media in general strangles the life out of them.

United are in the spotlight 24/7 and that has its advantages (money) and major disadvantages as the players have to face an onslaught of hate from fans on Social Media which feeds into pundits' analysis on TV in the actual media.

I am not sure what the solutions is, clearly the players need super thick skin but that is not easy given how things get out of hand on Social Media. I am convinced Maguire is not as bad as we have seen this season and it is confidence issue that is being caused by being placed under the magnifying glass.

How does the club prevent players being taken down by the mob on Social Media and having their confidence destroyed? The other day I watched the "Social Dilemma" on Netflix and it was an eye opener in terms of how the constant barrage of media can impact individuals psychologically and cause serious problems with younger people in terms of their self esteem, how is this any different for players?
 

Skills

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It's a valid point. Our players do tend to get a rougher time on social media compared to players from other teams.

From driving Gibson off Twitter, to the racist abuse both Pogba and Young received in recent years.

It doesn't just effect their confidence though. The 'memifying' and constantly breaking them down on social media also effects their transfer values. Other clubs don't want to buy your memes, "poor characters" and players who grounded out as being 'shit'
 

Jacob

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Grown ass man, should be able to cope. If not, give up the captaincy.
 

crossy1686

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Welcome to the big time.

This is what it's like to play for a big team that everyone wants to lose. This is why our players are paid so much, if they can't hack it then they shouldn't be here.

There's a reason some players go to other clubs and look better than they did here.
 

Siorac

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Last season Maguire made his mistakes, as did the rest of the defence, but make no mistake the defence was not the problem since we scored only 60 goals and had we had a fully functioning attack many of the draws / defeats would have ended up as wins.
Interestingly enough, our defence was much much worse when our attack didn't work either. We scored 36 and conceded 29 (in 24 games) before signing Bruno; we scored 30 and conceded 7 in the 14 games after signing Bruno.

So when our attack was a problem, the defence was a problem, too. Basically, if the attack can't keep the pressure on the opponent, our defence crumbles.
 

noodlehair

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Our defence wasn't very good last season. I feel like using numbers to try and suggest otherwise is just dishonest. It was the weakest part of our team.

Whenever we were put under any kind of pressure we conceded. Many of the goals we did concede were down to silly errors, particularly from the centrebacks.
 

Betson

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If social media criticism effects you that much , then professional footballer is not the job for you. Go be librarian , bus driver etc etc

Of all the excuses(and that is the one thing we have an oversupply of in this club) it is a fairly pathetic one
 

Skills

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Our defence wasn't very good last season. I feel like using numbers to try and suggest otherwise is just dishonest. It was the weakest part of our team.

Whenever we were put under any kind of pressure we conceded. Many of the goals we did concede were down to silly errors, particularly from the centrebacks.
And so is making out the 18/19 defence to be that poor. It wasn't. It was made to look poor by a manager downing tools, but the same players performed much better as soon as he left and especially in the 3 years that preceded that half a season.
 

Ish

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This might sound harsh, but this is why we're nowhere competing at the top if our players are mentally this fragile. This is what happens at the very highest level of competitive sports.

We're not the only "big club" under this sort of scrutiny and i am afraid, the worse you perform (as either a team or individual), the more the vultures will be out in force.
 

harms

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It’s not the reason, is it? It’s the (quite drastic) consequence. The reaction was always there, it’s just even more visible now. Still, if you’re a professional footballer, intense public scrutiny is a work necessity.
 

Raw

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Totally agree. The pressure of being the most expensive defender, Man United captain and an England international is extreme. That along with what happened with Greece and the 6-1 v Spurs, he must be in total meltdown. You need to be mentally prepared to withstand it all. I'm hoping Maguire will come out if this as a better person, instead of going the complete opposite way and further spiralling out of control.

Had we bought him for like £20m before Leicester got him, the transition would have been smoother. I reckon Smalling must be loving it in Italy since no one in the UK gives a shit about him anymore.

Interestingly enough, our defence was much much worse when our attack didn't work either. We scored 36 and conceded 29 (in 24 games) before signing Bruno; we scored 30 and conceded 7 in the 14 games after signing Bruno.

So when our attack was a problem, the defence was a problem, too. Basically, if the attack can't keep the pressure on the opponent, our defence crumbles.
It's definitely a problem we've had over the years. We haven't had a season since Fergie where we scored a relatively larger amount of goals than conceded. When we only score 1 or 2 most games, it adds a lot of pressure on the defence to have an almost perfect game and keep a clean sheet/concede just once. It'd be fine if we were a fully defensively minded team (like Atletico) but obviously we don't want that at Man United.
 

RoyH1

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For gods sake is there really need for another Maguire thread?

For the record, I don't think this is unique to United players. The shit some pundits/journos/social media warriors have given the likes of Sterling, Õzil and David Luiz over the years is pretty intense.

We 're just more tuned and sensitive to the chatter about United players because they're our own.
 

LilyWhiteSpur

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It happens to most top level players, it not just a United thing. Dele has been a target due to his petulance, Hugo for the drink driving, Kane over the goal thing with Eriksen.

Also you do realise this very forum is Social Media, there has been some scathing posts about him on here.
 

Smores

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Is there a competition to see who can make the most melodramatic take on Maguires poor form?

Weird how narratives form.
 

CM10

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The problem with Maguire is he just wasn't very good to begin with. He's half decent at bringing the ball out from the back and getting his head on a few set pieces but I really don't get why the club was so fixated on building the defence around him.

Even when he was playing his supposed best football at Leicester I never felt he was anything more than average. This stuff which happened in Greece might not have helped him but it's too simplistic to put it solely on that.
 

Bilbo

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Like @Smores said, its just a run of poor form. He'll get past it soon enough. I still don't understand how quickly our fans can and do turn on our own, but that's another issue.
 

Bilbo

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The problem with Maguire is he just wasn't very good to begin with. He's half decent at bringing the ball out from the back and getting his head on a few set pieces but I really don't get why the club was so fixated on building the defence around him.

Even when he was playing his supposed best football at Leicester I never felt he was anything more than average. This stuff which happened in Greece might not have helped him but it's too simplistic to put it solely on that.
There just aren't that many top centre backs around these days. I cant think of a single one that doesn't regularly look vulnerable and that includes your VVD's or whoever else is the poster boy these days. VAR & the rule changes do nothing but hurt defences these days, and your 6-1's & 7-2's are probably going to become more and more commonplace in years to come.

Maguire is fine. Our defence would benefit considerably from having a little protection from our midfield, which IMO is the real issue in our performances so far this season.
 

Hammondo

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I don't think anyone blames maguire for this.

Simply he's been massively overrated and put into a position he's not good enough for.

Leicester fans didn't understand the interest in him and often said Evans was better.

This is Ole's fault, we should have bought 1-2 CBs to take over.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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Even without social media, paper news and tv platform will still able to affect them. But social media is the obvious worst one and the first big step is to close all your social media account and focus on your professional career. What’s the point of social media anyway, you can live and play without it. Vidic doesn’t have social media and the fans still love him because of his performance.
 

RoyH1

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There just aren't that many top centre backs around these days. I cant think of a single one that doesn't regularly look vulnerable and that includes your VVD's or whoever else is the poster boy these days. VAR & the rule changes do nothing but hurt defences these days, and your 6-1's & 7-2's are probably going to become more and more commonplace in years to come.

Maguire is fine. Our defence would benefit considerably from having a little protection from our midfield, which IMO is the real issue in our performances so far this season.
Good point. Pep has spent the equivalent of the GNP of a small island nation on defenders and still cannot find a defence that will get Man City past the semis of the Champions League. There's a dearth of talented CB's and it's become a sellers market.
I think if Maguire gets his head screwed back on and is complimented by a top CB, he'll be fine.
 

Cypriot

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Even without social media, paper news and tv platform will still able to affect them. But social media is the obvious worst one and the first big step is to close all your social media account and focus on your professional career. What’s the point of social media anyway, you can live and play without it. Vidic doesn’t have social media and the fans still love him because of his performance.
Believe it or not, players' social media brings in decent money.
 

RedRoach

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Do Leicester get part of the blame for slapping such a huge price tag on a player realistically worth half of it? I vote yes.
Perfectly aware of that yes, and some of the comments on here are equally out of line and unhelpful.
 

RedRoach

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Welcome to the big time.

This is what it's like to play for a big team that everyone wants to lose. This is why our players are paid so much, if they can't hack it then they shouldn't be here.

There's a reason some players go to other clubs and look better than they did here.
Well exactly, that is my point. The level of noise about United players has nothing to do with other teams in the league. Everyone cannot wait to bring United and United players down. If the Greece thing had happened when he was playing for Leicester there would have been nowhere near as much fuss made nor would his mistakes be as in the spotlight. That is the reality of playing for United, but this pressure cooker is making good players fail.
 

jderbyshire

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Come off social media would be the obvious answer
This.

I know it's out of order the abuse players get online, but until there's regulations in place to completely stop it, you've just gotta stay away from it.

It's probably easy for me to say, as someone in their thirties who's never been a big social media user - but if I was a footballer I would NEVER go on social media or read articles after games, ratings out of 10 and all that. It can surely only have a net negative affect on performance.

But for people of a certain age, it's unfathomable to not be on social media. Footballers have loads of spare time and unfortunately many of us humans are impulsively narcissistic and can't resist the temptation of seeing what people think of us.
 

RedRoach

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Do we really need so many threads on Maguire?? :lol:
Actually this thread is not just about Maguire. If you read the title it is "Maguire is just the latest United player ..." so the thread is about all players and the impact of social media on them and how to manage that. Greenwood for example is the next player who I fear will be targeted.
 

RedRoach

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But for people of a certain age, it's unfathomable to not be on social media. Footballers have loads of spare time and unfortunately many of us humans are impulsively narcissistic and can't resist the temptation of seeing what people think of us.
Exactly, how do you tell the Greenwood/Rashford/next generation to stay off social media?
 

Maticmaker

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This stuff which happened in Greece might not have helped him but it's too simplistic to put it solely on that.
However it must be on his mind every second of every day especially wondering what is to come when he finally gets to trial? He certainly needs to 'get over it' as they say, but easier said than done when you are 'living in a goldfish bowl'.
 

Pace Abuser

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He's just freaking shit, man. Under a moneybags rookie manager who has not got a clue how he wants to play or what to do.

Put shit in, get shit out. The excuses are pathetic and mawkish and we have been hearing the same justifications and bar stool explanations for why Lingard is not living up to some nice words SAF once said about him or why Ole is not translating the power of '99 to management.
 

R77

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He's not as bad as has been made out in the main, it's just that he's prone to crazy headless chicken moments where it's like he's having a panic attack or something. Bizarre dribbling masterclass vs Chelsea in the cup a case in point. The Spurs game was the one where he didn't get away with it.

The problem now is that it's snowballed into the current situation, terrible form and what must be an insane amount of pressure with the world watching him have a terrible time.

As cheesy as it may sound, if social media stuff is such an issue, then do the opposite. Spam his and Utd accounts with messages of support.
 

RedRoach

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He's just freaking shit, man. Under a moneybags rookie manager who has not got a clue how he wants to play or what to do.

Put shit in, get shit out. The excuses are pathetic and mawkish.

I don't buy this, he is not the strongest defender but with the right defensive partner he would be fine. I also don't think we defend as a team which puts extra pressure on the defence. Rashford, Greenwood and Pogba all don't track back enough.

Also this is exactly the kind of comment that is not at all helpful and adds no value to the conversation.
 

Skills

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Good point. Pep has spent the equivalent of the GNP of a small island nation on defenders and still cannot find a defence that will get Man City past the semis of the Champions League. There's a dearth of talented CB's and it's become a sellers market.
I think if Maguire gets his head screwed back on and is complimented by a top CB, he'll be fine.
I actually think it's just managers completed fixated on the wrong attributes which in the grand scheme of things don't add a whole lot of value.

Southgate as an international manager is the prime example of this. He's dug his flag in the ball playing CB camp, so much so he actually has to play 5 at the back now to make up for their individual defensive deficiencies. Just so he can have CBs who can play out from the back.

He's actually sacrificing more control further up the pitch (in midfield or attack) just because he's obsessed with having his team play with ball playing CBs. It's fecking stupid.
 

Shane88

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Come off social media would be the obvious answer
Exactly. If he has tweets about brands/charities to send out, hire some PR person to do it.

Twitter is the last place I'd be if I was a pro footballer with any kind of presence.
 

tenpoless

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So it's true then, social media does affect players performances on the pitch.

Yet when I said Lingard's behaviour on social media or timing of his posts that prompted bad reactions from twitter idiots might have affected his performances for the worse, his staunch defenders said it was a dumb thing to say. Because apparently it was about his life, hobby and has nothing to do with football.