Should we consider selling Harry Maguire?

the chameleon

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The bizarre moment where we conceded because he pulled Luke Shaw's shirt when Shaw was trying to clear a previous error he made is the worst piece of defending I have ever seen from a Premier League defender. What was going through his mind that he would 'foul' his own teammate which led to us conceding. That alone and that the fact he's just garbage is enough a reason to strip him of his captaincy. No one will buy him at this point unless we got our friend Conte to help us. Even him, he would most likely run a mile.
 

roonster09

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The bizarre moment where we conceded because he pulled Luke Shaw's shirt when Shaw was trying to clear a previous error he made is the worst piece of defending I have ever seen from a Premier League defender. What was going through his mind that he would 'foul' his own teammate which led to us conceding. That alone and that the fact he's just garbage is enough a reason to strip him of his captaincy. No one will buy him at this point unless we got our friend Conte to help us. Even him, he would most likely run a mile.
Yeah, that's should end up in PL Classic moment, he pulled Shaw when Shaw was trying to clear the ball, lost balance and ended up on the deck, Ndombele had easy shot. That whole 5-6 seconds was one of the dumbest thing PL player can do.
 

RC89

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The bizarre moment where we conceded because he pulled Luke Shaw's shirt when Shaw was trying to clear a previous error he made is the worst piece of defending I have ever seen from a Premier League defender. What was going through his mind that he would 'foul' his own teammate which led to us conceding. That alone and that the fact he's just garbage is enough a reason to strip him of his captaincy. No one will buy him at this point unless we got our friend Conte to help us. Even him, he would most likely run a mile.
I genuinely wonder what went through his head. I may be reaching here but I have one suggestion... For as long as we've had Maguire I've thought he does things to embellish his reputation/abilities (A bit like Gerrard used to hit Hollywood balls).

Every now and then you'll see him play a cross field ball into no one, you'll see him dribble the ball out until he realises he's got nowhere to go.
I can't remember what game it was last season (post-lockdown) where he almost lost the ball because he wanted to dribble with it and ended up going round in circles in our own half when a simple pass would have got him out of trouble.
Remember him concussing Bailly against Chelsea to win a header that Bailly was already challenging for?

Anyhow, all this to say, I feel like he wanted to be the one to make the recovery clearance. And in his soul can bellow "I'm Harry fecking Maguire :mad:"
 

TsuWave

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Since signing for us, Maguire has at best been average and at worse been shocking. It's not an off night for him.

Last season, the amount of times he would be the one player playing the attacker on side.... Thankfully it didn't cost us too often. If a player shapes up to run him down the outside but instead drops the shoulder and comes inside, it's all over for Maguire, zero mobility. He fancies himself as Beckenbauer but he's a more expensive, less injury prone Phil Jones.

Agreed
 

Wilt

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Honestly think he’s just not very bright.

Let‘s face it, he’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
 
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RC89

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Honestly think he’s just not very bright.

Let‘s face it, he’s not the sharpest knife in the draw.
I really get this impression too, not sure what it is.
 

ForeverRed1

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In a dream world, yes.
The reality is that we paid 80m for him and put him on massive wages.
To sell him we would lose millions on the transfer fee and he would have to take a massive pay cut.
Can’t and won’t happen.
 

Wilt

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I really get this impression too, not sure what it is.
I think all the decent players need to have a good football brain.

Players like Rooney and Kane spring to mind, both have great vision, fast thinking/reactions.
 

manunited1919

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I've been thinking about this for a while because imo our defenders can't get bad that fast. They're not very good but you don't get that good defensive record if you're bad defenders.

Imo the biggest difference between this season and last season is our tactic. And Pogba and Matic.

Last season for the bigger part we played mostly with a counter attack approach. Which suited slow but strong players like Maguire, Matic. Or good defensively player like AWB, Shaw. We only employed the current 4231 high defensive line, FB going forward very high after the Covid break. We had a decent run but truth is our defence was not solid at all. Especially against fast counter attack.

Now Matic and Pogba. Matic got a year older and can't run as much as he used to. Pogba was injured for the large part of the last season and we played Fred, McT and Pereira. Tbh I'm no fan of those especially Pereira but at least those guys run and tackle a lot. Which lead to our midfield could protect our defence. Pogba has been dogshit and we have literally no midfield recently. Which make our defence super exposed. Teams cut through us like a hot knife through butter.

Imo Ole got all this wrong. His current tactic doesn't play to the strength of his line up but rather expose all their weaknesses. He has super slow defenders and midfielders playing a high line. And bad attacking FB going as far as the box. Him keeping Pogba doesn't help either.
This. It’s the crux of our defensive problems. Pogba shouldn’t be playing deep either, he should play as a more advance midfielder, but that’s another topic.
 

manunited1919

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The bizarre moment where we conceded because he pulled Luke Shaw's shirt when Shaw was trying to clear a previous error he made is the worst piece of defending I have ever seen from a Premier League defender. What was going through his mind that he would 'foul' his own teammate which led to us conceding. That alone and that the fact he's just garbage is enough a reason to strip him of his captaincy. No one will buy him at this point unless we got our friend Conte to help us. Even him, he would most likely run a mile.
I fully agree with you. But maybe better to bench him a few games instead of stripping him of his captaincy. Blame the Greek situation for it. You just need to consider he is still our player and will be one of our key players this year, whether we like him or not. We can’t just totally destroy his confidence at a time when he is clearly having issues.
 

dwd

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Never mind Upamecano, I'd take a model of him made out of Meccano rather than Maguire at the moment. He needs to shape up fast, hopefully the break does him some good.
 

Fosu-Mens

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All our defenders got some limitations that they need covering for.

Maguire: Immobility, bordering on the extreme.
Lindelof: Weak.
AWB: Not offering alot on the ball.
Shaw: Not very astute in his actions on the ball or deciding who to mark/Where to position himself when off the ball.

Not doing ourselves any favours by heaving these type of players, especially when they are not offering that much in other areas to make up for their weaknesses (could argue AWB's abilties 1v1, but he is a fullback that cannot attack...)
 

tenpoless

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The bizarre moment where we conceded because he pulled Luke Shaw's shirt when Shaw was trying to clear a previous error he made is the worst piece of defending I have ever seen from a Premier League defender. What was going through his mind that he would 'foul' his own teammate which led to us conceding. That alone and that the fact he's just garbage is enough a reason to strip him of his captaincy. No one will buy him at this point unless we got our friend Conte to help us. Even him, he would most likely run a mile.
Indeed and who could forget this one
Playing with the ball for the sake of ball playing
 

SWE-Chucky

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Play Mendi - Tuanzebe ASAP. I would try Laird - Mendi - Tuanzebe - Tellas (if we buy him, if not, stick with Shaw).

We have nothing to lose at this point- Sell Maguire and Lindelöf next summer = Buy Upamecano and hopefully at least of Mendi and/or Tuanzebe will be ready to pair up with him. Laird should start getting as many chances as possible from now on aslo.
 

hurricane thunderclap

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Play Mendi - Tuanzebe ASAP. I would try Laird - Mendi - Tuanzebe - Tellas (if we buy him, if not, stick with Shaw).

We have nothing to lose at this point- Sell Maguire and Lindelöf next summer = Buy Upamecano and hopefully at least of Mendi and/or Tuanzebe will be ready to pair up with him. Laird should start getting as many chances as possible from now on aslo.
Not as crazy as it sounds. Smalling is going nowhere and Roco could be picked with Mendi . 5 at the back . We have the strike force and midfield to do the damage. At the moment the damage is being done at the back. Harry was and is a bad buy.
 

Revan

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Good luck getting 40m from him. No club is as bad as us in the transfer market.
 

AFC NimbleThumb

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I still can’t fee as thin what we spent on him; we’d have no chance of getting half what we paid currently.
 

Bwuk

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Hes been awful all season. Not sure if it’s the whole Greece fiasco but he looks a relegation standard CB at the moment.
 
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We should certainly drop him he's appalling. Big mistake from LVG selling Evans and arguably are best defender is about to join Roma. And he shouldn't be captain - the captain would be facing the cameras after that, not Shaw.
Selling Blind was bad business too, he was better than both Lindeolf and Maguire.
 

Van Piorsing

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We can sell, but without plan who to actually buy and what system fit the new players in, it's gonna be another spiral of fail.
 

King Andow

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Play Mendi - Tuanzebe ASAP. I would try Laird - Mendi - Tuanzebe - Tellas (if we buy him, if not, stick with Shaw).

We have nothing to lose at this point- Sell Maguire and Lindelöf next summer = Buy Upamecano and hopefully at least of Mendi and/or Tuanzebe will be ready to pair up with him. Laird should start getting as many chances as possible from now on aslo.
We need 2 CB's. Tuanzebe is injury prone and unproven, Mengi is 18 with 0 professional games. The rest is either deadwood or not good enough to be a starter. I'd go for Upamecano and Koundé, both would walk into this clown defense.
 

Sparky_Hughes

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This. It’s the crux of our defensive problems. Pogba shouldn’t be playing deep either, he should play as a more advance midfielder, but that’s another topic.
Preferably advanced right across the channel, over the alps and into Italy
 

ICHM

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Quite how we have not bought two CBs this window is a mystery to me. We are probably selling our best CB to Roma, these current clowns are worse than Jones and Smalling when they were supposed to be an upgrade.

Sell Maguire next summer along with Lindeflop and made of glass Bailly. Hopefully Rojo will be out of contract too by then.

Somebody needs to slap Shaw as he is getting worse match by match, even AWB has caught the malaise.
 

Nytram Shakes

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While his performances since after the COVID restart, have been poor, he is still probably our best defender. It was just a stupid decision to spend so much money on him, as soon as Leicester said what they wanted for him we should have said no thank you like City did.
 

Water Melon

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The bizarre moment where we conceded because he pulled Luke Shaw's shirt when Shaw was trying to clear a previous error he made is the worst piece of defending I have ever seen from a Premier League defender. What was going through his mind that he would 'foul' his own teammate which led to us conceding. That alone and that the fact he's just garbage is enough a reason to strip him of his captaincy. No one will buy him at this point unless we got our friend Conte to help us. Even him, he would most likely run a mile.
This season the fecker is like a mad dog on tranquillizers. All rush, no vision, no thinking and fecking slow too. Tries to compensate lack of pace by idiotic proactiveness which leads to him being nutmegged, dribbled past or hitting his own teammate. His so called ability to play out from back puts us under immense pressure as he takes too many touches thus allowing opposition to press him and block all passing options. If that was my money spent on this player, I'd fire the bloke who bought him immediately.
 

hurricane thunderclap

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Not as crazy as it sounds. Smalling is going nowhere and Roco could be picked with Mendi . 5 at the back . We have the strike force and midfield to do the damage. At the moment the damage is being done at the back. Harry was and is a bad buy.
Oh, Smalling has gone. AWB as CB , he gives nothing going forward. Vic and Harry are just a disastrous pairing. Time to blood the kids. I still think Rojo has more to offer. We have a new full back . We should let the kids size their chances and play with three CB's . I know this sounds desperate but honestly? We are.
 

hurricane thunderclap

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We need 2 CB's. Tuanzebe is injury prone and unproven, Mengi is 18 with 0 professional games. The rest is either deadwood or not good enough to be a starter. I'd go for Upamecano and Koundé, both would walk into this clown defense.
Yeah but Shaw , I'M HARRY FUQIN MAGUIRE !!! And Lindelof are fit and experienced and just look what is happening.
 

Chairman Steve

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At the moment... No

I would try to find him a centre-back partner from our current bunch who can best compliment him.

I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing Tuanzebe and Mengi get chances this season to see if we need to spend big on a centre back next summer. I have a feeling OGS is hoping one of Tuanzebe or Mengi really steps up and becomes one of the starting XI by the end of the season. I think he had big plans for Tuanzebe last year but injuries happened.
 

Judas

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We're not even in a position to drop him really due to our terrible options. But like a few others, he just needs a spell on the bench probably, at the very least.
 

AneRu

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At the moment... No

I would try to find him a centre-back partner from our current bunch who can best compliment him.

I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing Tuanzebe and Mengi get chances this season to see if we need to spend big on a centre back next summer. I have a feeling OGS is hoping one of Tuanzebe or Mengi really steps up and becomes one of the starting XI by the end of the season. I think he had big plans for Tuanzebe last year but injuries happened.
A lot depends on what happens with Tuanzebe, I think if he can claim Lindelof's place and stay fit (big ask I know) then we can sell Maguire in the summer and buy Konate or Upamecano.

However if Tuanzebe doesn't step up then selling Maguire would mean that we need two starting CBs at one go and expecting the dynamic duo of Woodward and Judge to deliver that being extremely optimistic to a fault.

We will never launch a title challenge with a player like Maguire starting for us.
 

MUFC OK

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The bizarre moment where we conceded because he pulled Luke Shaw's shirt when Shaw was trying to clear a previous error he made is the worst piece of defending I have ever seen from a Premier League defender. What was going through his mind that he would 'foul' his own teammate which led to us conceding. That alone and that the fact he's just garbage is enough a reason to strip him of his captaincy. No one will buy him at this point unless we got our friend Conte to help us. Even him, he would most likely run a mile.
Funnily enough, I think Conte could get a title challenge out of this team - hes a fantastic manager who's had success pretty much everywhere he's gone.
 

Renegade

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To the people saying sell him, who do you expect to pay at least half the 80m and commit to his wages? This isn’t a game where you just put a player on the transfer list and he goes instantly.

There’s zero chance of him being sold. His our expensive mistake to deal with.
 

MUFC OK

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Merson knows ball:

In fairness, any team that plays a high line is susceptible to the ball over the top - look at Liverpool v Villa. I wouldn't like to speculate how much faster VVD and Gomez are over 50 yards though..

Also, Mourinho was right about Shaw, he's out of position so often and having maguire covering that space is a recipe for disaster.
 

AneRu

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To the people saying sell him, who do you expect to pay at least half the 80m and commit to his wages? This isn’t a game where you just put a player on the transfer list and he goes instantly.

There’s zero chance of him being sold. His our expensive mistake to deal with.
Too bad Everton have cleaned up their act and smartened up otherwise they would be the obvious choice. But since he has an England career to consider I think we can flog him off for £30m to someone like West Ham next summer.

One thing I have always known is that if Ole gets the sack then it's highly likely that the next manager won't fancy Maguire as a key player. I can't see any manager who wants to play on the front foot being comfortable with a player as slow as Maguire in their defense.