Who is our most important player?

kthanksbye

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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.
Why are you taking away the pens though, to win a pen we need to get the ball into the opposition box, force a mistake. Bruno does that a lot, and then pens also have to be put away, just ask England fans.
 

GazTheLegend

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Harry Maguire closely followed by Bruno. After that it gets a bit more difficult.
 

OleBoiii

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With the Sancho signing, Cavani having had a season to settle, Rashford hopefully getting a break and Greenwood being a year older it's tempting to say that our most important player right now is Maguire.

But the answer is still probably Bruno.
 

Tom Cato

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The Skipper for me. He gets a lot of flak, but when he finally manages to get injured after Cavani threw a guy at him (complete accident, of course) it became very apparent who the glue of the team is.
 

Andersons Dietician

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None of them are irreplaceable for me so I wouldn’t say any of them are significantly more important than any other in the team. See how they all go next season.
 

anant

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Bruno followed by Maguire followed by Rashford/Shaw.
 

Rozay

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For the team we are, Bruno is the main man. Always said that to me, he’s the man we needed at the point where we were when he joined. I don’t think a team with Bruno as it’s star/best player is a PL/CL favourite though. That’s a step we’ll have to take at some point in the near future if we want to win the biggest prizes in the game.
 
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It's obviously Fernandes.

Maguire, Shaw, Rashford and Pogba are great but we've already shown we're perfectly capable of being a mediocre team with them. There's a reason Fernandes always plays even when he's knackered.
 

He'sRaldo

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It's obviously Fernandes.

Maguire, Shaw, Rashford and Pogba are great but we've already shown we're perfectly capable of being a mediocre team with them. There's a reason Fernandes always plays even when he's knackered.
You have to take into account Bruno generally has played with those very good players.

If he had to suffer the conditions Martial and Rashford had suffered at times (Pereira and Dan James supplying them, Fred and Scott dictating), he would have performed similarly to how they did, and we'd have had similar results.

That's why to me all of our attackers have very similar importance, depending on the role they play. The most important thing is the increase of attacking quality on the pitch.
 

bosnian_red

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  1. Maguire
  2. Shaw
  3. Bruno
  4. Sancho
  5. Wan Bissaka
Players who when they're missing we'll see a huge decrease or loss on the field. Telles is a decent backup but Shaw just provides so much to our buildup play so he's up there. Sancho will be key because he's an actual winger and is focused on creativity and build up play which the others aren't, and it'll make a world of difference. We have no right back depth.
 

United in sin

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Pogba, Bruno, Rashford, Shaw, Bissaka.

Our fullbacks are underrated considering the covering they have to do for those two slow centerbacks we have
 

Spaghetti

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Maguire by a country mile, for a combination of his leadership, mammoth performances and poor back up. Shaw second for the same reasons, and also no Shaw = Telles.

None of the attacking midfielders make that much of a difference. Difficult to say Bruno as he’s not missed a game since he joined, and I’d quite like to see Pogba in his role anyway. Cavani is probably the biggest loss of the attacking players, so I’ll put him third.
 

Blood Mage

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Bruno, Maguire, Shaw and Wan-Bissaka. If any one of them goes missing through injury the drop in our performance level is huge.
 

tomaldinho1

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As weird as it sounds, I'd have Fred as being pivotal for the system we play.

Bruno is undoubtedly our MVP though.
 

DSG

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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.
Couple things to unpack here. We more or less had that starting midfield before Bruno got here (with a bit of Lingard sprinkled in). Didn’t really work. Maguire is really important, but the Bailly / Tuanzebe / Lindelof is dealer’s choice for me with maybe a slight edge to Lindelof.

I believe our defensive record was better in the 19/20 season vs. last season.
I have to go with Bruno personally. It’s attitude and mentality more than anything. Maguire seems, well, anxious at times, whereas Bruno is a stone cold killer that will use every advantage he has to win.
 

Bertie 2 Hats

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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.
You've change your tune.. You're probably Maguire's biggest critic on the Caf with countless comments trying to push that point forward.. Didn't you claim he wasn't good enough for United ?
 
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You have to take into account Bruno generally has played with those very good players.

If he had to suffer the conditions Martial and Rashford had suffered at times (Pereira and Dan James supplying them, Fred and Scott dictating), he would have performed similarly to how they did, and we'd have had similar results.
I don't really agree with that. Fernandes also played a lot of this season with a completely off-form Martial, goal-shy Greenwood and unfit Cavani to supply, with the same Fred-Scott partnership behind him (largely because Pogba was a shambles until December).

He still produced unreal numbers, quite literally carrying the attack on his back (even if a lot of the goals were penalties).

In terms of a single player coming in and having an instantly transformative impact on the entire team and results, I can't think of anyone to match him. Maguire and Wan-Bissaka have been decent but in January 2020, I believe we were in exactly the same league position with them as we'd been before their signing. Pogba came in and we actually finished a spot lower in his first season. Martial was one of our best players in 19/20 and we finished higher this time even though he might as well not have been there. Shaw's been Player of the Season in United teams that have finished 2nd and also 6th.
 
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Banana Republic

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None of the above.
We haven't signed THAT player yet.
A commanding CDM/CM who can not only provide robust defensive cover, but can be a launchpad for Bruno, attacking fullbacks, and the wide and forward attacking players.
Without that player, we still have shaky foundations.
 

MZX7

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I have rated the usual suspects for Ole's starting line up.....based on how world class they are and also how depending on their performance on the day, our team, as a whole, performs.

Some people might consider Henderson to be above De Gea, but, personally, I think De Gea has at least 2 more seasons of World Class left in him and I feel with the coming of a great CB to pair up with Maguire, we will see a great season from our goalie.

1. Bruno
2. Shaw
3. Pogba
4. Maguire
5. Cavani
6. De Gea
7. Rashford
8. Wan Bissaka
9. Fred
10. Greenwood
11. McTominay
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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It's obviously Fernandes.

Maguire, Shaw, Rashford and Pogba are great but we've already shown we're perfectly capable of being a mediocre team with them. There's a reason Fernandes always plays even when he's knackered.
You could make the same case with Maguire.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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You've change your tune.. You're probably Maguire's biggest critic on the Caf with countless comments trying to push that point forward.. Didn't you claim he wasn't good enough for United ?
If I’m not mistaken he already made an apology thread about Maguire 2 months ago.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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Yup. But not the first half of that line - Maguire didn't miss a minute of football between his signing and Bruno's, but we were still rubbish.
You could also make the same case with it because we were rubbish when Bruno played since Maguire's injury.
 

JakeC

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Bruno
Maguire
Rashford, Shaw, AWB
Pogba.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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Maguire was only out for four league games. The half-season before Fernandes signed was a much larger sample to establish rubbishness.
Those four league games didn't change the fact we continued our shit form in EL final despite of having Cavani, Pogba and Bruno so it doesn't mean it will end after four league games if Maguire end up getting injured for half season. Remember, before Bruno was signed, Pogba was injured but we still beat City, Spurs, and Chelsea without Cavani, Bruno and Pogba.
 
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Yeah, there was the odd big result but we were rubbish overall, 8th at the halfway mark and well outside the top four at the time Fernandes joined.

If Maguire misses a chunk of this season and we continue to play like we did that month, sure. They can tie for it!
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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Yeah, there was the odd big result but we were rubbish overall, 8th at the halfway mark and well outside the top four at the time Fernandes joined.

If Maguire misses a chunk of this season and we continue to play like we did that month, sure. They can tie for it!
We were 5th before Bruno joined mate not 8th. And again, that was when we had lot of injuries like Rashford, Martial, and Pogba. On top of that we didn't have Cavani.

End of the day, the same case you made about Bruno can be used on Maguire.
 
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I didn't say we were 8th when Bruno joined, though.

Pointless to keep going in circles here, but I think I've already explained why I don't think Maguire's had the sort of transformational impact on the team that Fernandes did.
 

Nicolarra90

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I see Maguire growing into the leader role. He's just missing the 5-10 goals from set pieces per season to fulfill his potential.
 

Abraxas

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Maguire and Bruno, I think this is abundantly clear.

The difference between United pre and post Bruno has been obvious to everybody, including neutral observers. His sheer output, pressing, willingness to try things made a huge difference.

Without Maguire our defence is shambolic. He's the only organiser, the only aerial presence.

Pretty hard and pointless to attempt to determine which, I'm just glad we have them.
 

Hughes35

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1. Maguire
2. Cavani
3. Bruno
4. Shaw
5. Pogba

Position one and 2 are easy, then it gets a bit more difficult.
 

lysglimt

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Maguire - easily. We have players good enough to win us most matches even without Bruno - but with Maguire out, we are so badly weakened. But if we sign Varane, I would argue that Maguire isn't our most important player anymore because a combination of Lindelof and Varane is almost as strong as Maguire and Varane.