Who is our most important player?

Schmeichel's Cartwheel

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Maguire for me. When he doesn’t play the difference in quality from the replacements is enormous. Shaw is a close 2nd.
 

Revan

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Bruno obviously.

Maguire, Shaw and Rashford after him (pick the order).
 

Schmeichel's Cartwheel

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For those saying Bruno, does

Fred McT
Pogba​

weaken us more then Bailly or Tuanzebe playing alongside Lindelof? If you take away pens Bruno has something like 7 goals in his last 40 games, and his overall performances has been poor since the new year. Maguire is far more important for the team in my opinion.
 

Schmeichel's Cartwheel

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I'd probably agree with this, Maguire makes our defence better and if he's missing we drop points.
I'd also argue AWB has to be close not because he's amazing just because his back is so bad.
AWB would be a bigger loss than Bruno or Rashford or Pogba or Cavani etc solely because his backup is so bad. We’re literally going from a solid PL player to a league 2 player if he gets injured. Good shout. He could actually be the most important player thinking about it like that.

actually, Dalot is back now, he’s not that bad. I was talking about Williams.
 
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Maguire and Bruno can’t be separated. If we were to bring in Varane (I think it’s bs), that’d make it Bruno alone but even that depends on just how well Sancho settles. Maybe we won’t be so reliant on him next season.

So, can only really say on last season and it was joint between the pair.
 

He'sRaldo

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The mentions of Maguire and Bruno are overstated. Since they've arrived, both played most minutes of most games so we never got a chance to see how the team would adapt without them.

Maguire did get injured, but the form after his injury is similar to other runs of form we've had with him in the side. And in Bruno's case he's never really injured or dropped so we can only go by how we looked playing Lingard/Pereira instead of the options we have now.

The biggest factor is having a capable replacement. There was a point when Martial was irreplaceable and wrapped in cotton wool after every game because if he was injured we had no capable attack, same with Rashford. But now with the addition of Cavani and Sancho, as well as the growth of Greenwood and recovery of Pogba, their presence is not as crucial as before.

So with that in mind maybe AWB? Although he too has played basically every game since his arrival.
 

El Jefe

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Maguire.

People point to how we looked prior to Bruno but Mata, Lingard, James and Pereira got many games in the half season before Bruno arrived. None of these would get much game time now as Sancho, Rashford, Pogba, Cavani, Martial and VDB has more than enough creativity and goals to make up for losing Bruno. A bit of a hot take but there's even a chance we play better team ball.

We would be fecked without Maguire if the team stays as is.
 

Welbeckham

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Bruno is not even THAT great individually, but we look terrible without him. Maguire is our best CB by far and it shows. Telles is pretty much useless, so Shaw is extremely important.
 

Rozay

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With the current team, approach and philosophy we have - I’d probably say Bruno. Between him and Maguire anyway.
 

Strelok

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Bruno.

Remember the West Ham match last season? Without him we looked so fecking clueless until he came on in the second half and made us tick.

Maguire is surely important but not to that extent.
 

Mr Smith

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Currently Bruno and Maguire, but that could change if we sign Varane. Cavan also high on the list, even at 34.
 

Strelok

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Maguire. State of us without him at the end of the season, we would have finished 6th had he missed a chunk of the season
If Bruno missed a chunk of the season I'm afraid we could not even make that 6th.
 

Deery

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Easily Bruno Fernandes, I don’t get the disrespect on this forum..
 

Pexbo

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Easily Bruno Fernandes, I don’t get the disrespect on this forum..
It’s not disrespectful to debate the importance of Maguire vs Bruno. Maguire is a colossus for us in defence both in how he defends and how he organises.

I’d say it’s about equal, we concede more without Maguire and we score less without Bruno.
 

GueRed

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Maguire and Bruno are our most important players for me.

A fully fit Rashford a distant 3rd most important.
 

JJ12

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Seen it lots of times people trying to make Bruno out to be shite..
Yeah I don’t get that either. There’s at least 2 here who would prefer Grealish to Bruno and talking shite about Bruno to prove that point.

I can’t really figure that one out.
 

Deery

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It’s not disrespectful to debate the importance of Maguire vs Bruno. Maguire is a colossus for us in defence both in how he defends and how he organises.

I’d say it’s about equal, we concede more without Maguire and we score less without Bruno.
It’s harder to score goals and win games than it is to defend, that’s why they are the most sought after players in the world..
 

JPRouve

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Maguire. If Varane comes, then Bruno
I'm following the same logic. I think that we have better alternatives to Bruno than we have for Maguire. It would of course require a change in the way the team is organized but I think that this change should happen regardless.
 

Strelok

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I’d say it’s about equal, we concede more without Maguire and we score less without Bruno.
This sounds correct at first but imo it's not really. If you don't concede but can't score the best you get is one point. If you concede but score more than you opponent you still get three points.

I'm not trying to downplay the importance of the defense or Maguire but truth is a win is much more valuable than a draw. And to win you must score.
 

Andy_Cole

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Obviously Bruno. Pre Bruno we were bang average. He raised our level to the point that Maguire and Shaw are showing what they are now. When he’s off it we generally don’t win.
 

Vidyoyo

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Take your pick from Maguire and Bruno. Football is not a one man sport though, so veneration of individuals as if they were the Doge of old Venice is at odds with the sport's inherent machinations.