‘Ole’s recruitment has been great’ narrative

PedroMendez

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From a clubs perspective costs matter, because the budget is limited. There are opportunity costs for every transfer.
For a world record fee, you want a top class player. I doubt that Maguire has that quality. The Maguire transfer is bad when I think about opportunity costs, but at least he is good enough to be a starting CB for a top4 team.

James is a very good transfer and nobody argues otherwise.

I think the biggest issue is with AWB. Every discussion about him is already mentioning his lack of quality going forward. United can't just replace him due to price tag and problems in different areas. Hopefully he will improve because otherwise united is stuck with a weak link for years.
Think about Luke shaw: despite failing to show consistent performances for years, united had to keep him as starting lb (at least on paper). You can't just sell&replace expensive signings. Same with Fred or one of the other underperformers.
 
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roonster09

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Leicester have Wilfred Ndidi who's played 1170mins for them. A quality defensive midfielder to shield their defense.

Whenever I suggest signing a player like him I get the old "United shouldn't need such players" argument. When the reality is it's pretty much a requirement in the modern game.

Who do we have as a player who could do that job? Nobody. It's certainly not Scott McTominay before anyone suggests his name, he's a very good CM but not a DM, not a defensive shield. Matic is probably the closest we have and he's about as mobile as a turtle.
Sometimes people forget football is a team game and team is built on players who compliments each other.

Good post as usual, this is where we either missed the trick or people are too harsh on players.
 

meamth

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They look like shambles when midfielders went out injured.

It's simple, no steel in midfield, no clean sheets.
 

Florida Man

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We are weaker in defence than we were 2 years ago, and that's after spending 120M. AWB is not an upgrade on Valencia, the only upgrade is he's younger. Maguire is shit for a "WORLD RECORD" fee, imagine that we're paying a world record for a defender and that's what we're getting? And you think this is shrewd purchase? We're being robbed blind because Ole's too out of depth to properly analyze that Maguire offers nothing Smailing can't offer. He's good on the ball? So what, that's the least of our worries when we have a glaring holes in midfield. You worried about ball playing CB as the icing on the cake. We're paying 80M for the cherry on the top of the cake while having no cake to eat.

Where we headed is bottom half, that's not the right direction.

Sugar coat it with your own narratives, fact is Ole's job on the line and if he's sacked tomorrow nobody can say he's being hard done.
I’m Ole out. But I stick to my opinion on our signings. I understand that a bad manager makes good players look bad. Two years ago we had Mourinho so of course defense was going to look better. You also contradict yourself about AWB. The rest of your reply seems to have disregarded what I wrote to begin with.
 

Forevergiggs1

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This is very true. But how can you explain this when each manager has had different coaching staff? Is it expectation / pressure / too much money?
As far away as it seems right now we're still one of the biggest clubs in the land. For a player signing for us it doesn't get much bigger. With their massive wage packet maybe they lose their hunger after thinking they've made it to the top which is were SAF excelled. He kept the players hungry. They knew no one was safe which players line Keane, Beckham, Stam and many more found out. Players now are just going through the motions of being a footballer.

Our last 3 managers before Ole have hardly been inspirational and can't instill that hunger needed to make us a force again. With Ole it's even worse because he seems to have accepted mediocrity and that's rubbing off onto the players.

Or maybe it's something more simpler like the last 4 managers have been shite :D. To be fair Mou and LVG had their day but they just weren't a good match for us.
 

Roboc7

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Leicester have Wilfred Ndidi who's played 1170mins for them. A quality defensive midfielder to shield their defense.

Whenever I suggest signing a player like him I get the old "United shouldn't need such players" argument. When the reality is it's pretty much a requirement in the modern game.

Who do we have as a player who could do that job? Nobody. It's certainly not Scott McTominay before anyone suggests his name, he's a very good CM but not a DM, not a defensive shield. Matic is probably the closest we have and he's about as mobile as a turtle.
I don’t think Maguire is playing massively different to how he did at Leicester he just isn’t anywhere close to an 85m defender. He’s under a lot more scrutiny and has e round his neck but he has never been anything special for Leicester or England.

Same with AWB, very good defensively but not great going forward. Like Maguire his performing to type it’s just combined they were never worth anything close to 135m and we’re never going to have that kind of impact.
 

Irwin99

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It was used as a bit of a narrative to excuse some of the early season bad results but it seems to be losing a bit of credibility now. I've said before, give them a year and a half or so and then we can see assess their success. I think they'll be good signings in the long run (most confident about James)
 

Tarrou

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I was happy with the signings, but unhappy with the lack of midfield and attack reinforcements. Overall I’d say recruitment last summer was a failure because we left glaring holes in the squad.
 

Fosu-Mens

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Only time will tell but...

If OGS plan was to park the bus and counter I would say that James and AWB are two good transfers that are suited to the style of play. The only problem with this is that this type of football will never get us far. So completely useless approach to begin with, but should give OGS some credit for identifying 2 players that suited his approach, regardless of how outdated or non-productive said approach is.

Maguire was a mistake.

Not buying midfielders was the biggest mistake. Even with Herrera and PP healthy, our midfield would be midtable at best, given that PP needs to play in a trio.
 

dev1l

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Only time will tell but...

If OGS plan was to park the bus and counter I would say that James and AWB are two good transfers that are suited to the style of play. The only problem with this is that this type of football will never get us far. So completely useless approach to begin with, but should give OGS some credit for identifying 2 players that suited his approach, regardless of how outdated or non-productive said approach is.

Maguire was a mistake.

Not buying midfielders was the biggest mistake. Even with Herrera and PP healthy, our midfield would be midtable at best, given that PP needs to play in a trio.
Maybe Not buying midfielders was not his decision. Even Mourinho admitted he was overriden by the board, let alone Solskjær.
The club made some crucial mistakes in recruitment in the last few years and maybe the board decided that these could not be fixed in one window due to financial implications
 

Florida Man

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Regarding AWB, he was linked with a move to City, Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea, and Arsenal according to this. I think it's fair to say he's a good transfer. We just have a terrible coaching setup. I'd be more concerned with the players who've been consistently terrible under multiple managers.
 

UnrelatedPsuedo

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All fantastic signings.

Any signing that immediately starts, is a success.

AWB is a phenomenal right back. You can decide what kind of flavour right back you want, but he is a top class right back. He will be a top class footballer.

Maguire is a top tier centre half. Strong, commanding, two decent feet. Great at Set pieces in attack and defence. He massively improved our defence and is head and shoulders better than all of our other centre backs.

James has been one of our best players this season. Very inconsistent. Might not pan out over the next 5 years, but he’s raw, talented, and you know that whatever level he reaches, he’ll have worked his tail off to ensure he’s squeezed every drop of talent from his career.

Why do fans need to hate EVERYTHING.

Hate the coaching.
Hate the game management.
Hate the style of play.
Hate the lack of anything resembling a midfield
Hate the owners
Hate the Board
Hate player attitudes

Hate the whole lot if you like. But it’s abundantly clear that all the players we signed, are better than what we had.

AWB would walk into top European and PL sides.
Maguire would too. He’d start at every club in the league.
James is a talent that will succeed or fail. But he cost a small sum, and will always be worth more than we paid.
 

Treble

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There was a similar narrative when Jose was here, in papticular after his 2nd season. Then things went tits-up and people changed their opinion. Something similar is happening/is not unlikely to happen regarding Ole's signings.

Maguire is the Lukaku of CBs. Good but nothing special. AWB and James are young and might blossom into pretty good players. Or might not, if the next manager isn't a fan.
 

Fosu-Mens

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Maybe Not buying midfielders was not his decision. Even Mourinho admitted he was overriden by the board, let alone Solskjær.
The club made some crucial mistakes in recruitment in the last few years and maybe the board decided that these could not be fixed in one window due to financial implications
If there were financial restrictions that caused us to not buy midfielders, then why did we spend £80m on a centreback (Alderweireld, Dunk, Ake as alternatives just in the EPL) or £50m on a RB with alternatives available for less?

There were a number of players available with clauses that would have improved our starting 11 so I don't accept that financial reasons were what made us unable to make the changes needed for us to look like a top 4 on paper.

I don't think that OGS is that naive that he thinks he will get what he wants, but then one must adapt to the hierarchy you work in and thus ensuring that you come into the season with the best possible squad based on the restrictions you work within.

This is not nearly close to being all on OGS, since we can suspect that some people at the club are not good at their job, but i do think he should take a reasonable amount of the blame.
 

POF

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Doesn’t anyone find it odd just how many good players come to United, and then gradually turn crap. It’s not a “narrative” that his recruitment has been good, we desperately needed a RB and signed one of the best ones in the league. We signed one of the best CB’s in the league (overpaid of course, but that’s irrelevant), it wasn’t a desperate position to fill but we had 6 mediocre players there and it was important. James is a raw young talent, but he looks good.

But like every other player we sign, after a while, they start to look bad. Seriously, can you name a single player we’ve signed over the last five years who we haven’t ruined? Been saying this for years, but if we signed Messi he’d look like Bebe after three months and you’d have fans on the caf saying he’s garbage. This happens CONSTANTLY, at some point you have to stop blaming the players. We let Smalling go out on loan and he looks like fecking prime Paolo Maldini! Get him back here and I guarantee within a couple of months he’ll have made mistakes and you’ll have fans on his back saying he’s shite and we need to sign someone better. You can blame Ole’s coaching, but this problem isn’t exclusive to him. In terms of recruitment, they were the ideal targets.
It's the scrutiny of playing at a big club where there are more eyes on the player every week and the majority of fans are hoping they mess up so they can slate them. It's why making the step up to a big club is challenging and players have to be strong mentally. For that reason, the "cultural reset" at the club is a good idea, trying to find players with strong mentality.

Smalling is doing nothing at Roma he hasn't done at United. When he was confident and played with aggression at United he was in the top 3 defenders in the league (defensively). All this "chuckle brothers" rubbish gets players a reputation they don't deserve.

Equally, Maguire looked pedestrian and slow on multiple occasions at Leicester. Wan Bissaka came from Palace with a reputation of being weak going forward. It's nothing new. Their weaknesses are just being highlighted now and when results are bad, fans are on the lookout for a scapegoat.
 

NinjaZombie

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Let's say we all agree Ole's recruitment has been great. Is that all his job is about? He has to actually be able to coach the players into playing well and winning games, which he is failing at right now.
 

Josep Dowling

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How can anyone think his recruitment was good when we left ourselves with no central midfielders and a very weak front line.

We were a Pogba injury from a crisis and that’s exactly what happened. With the Europa League they must have known we simply needed numbers not just quality numbers. Ole shot himself in the foot at turning his nose up at so many players in an attempt to sign his top target in each position. How can you let Tielemans go for £40m for example, he was the perfect signing for us.

Being limited to 3 signings a summer is going to ruin us. We need a much faster turnover than that. Next summer Pogba will leave. We will also lose Matic and Young, so that two squad players we need to replace as well. Rojo, Jones and Mata are surplus to requirement - though I suspect none will leave once again. We will need 3 central midfielders alone at that point.
 

Alabaster Codify7

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If his recruitment has been great, then what has gone wrong? Because if his recruitment has been great, we should have a better squad/team than last season or else it wasnt great, was it? Or else, the squad/team is worse so it wasn't great recruitment.

Also, if his recruitment was great, then his coaching is fecking shite because we're 9th and we can't win a game for love nor money. And don't give me injuries, Pereira and Fred in CM is no worse on paper than some relegation standard sides and we've struggled against some of them. We had a full-strength midfield early in the season and looked like, guess what, Dogshit.

What's the common denominator in all of this? Ole's coaching.
 

Ekeke

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I thought it was a poor window and I'm not too surprised we're midtable and certainly havent made progress on 6th from last season. Got rid of 2 of our most reliable players and our goalscorer off the bench
 

Adnan

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If his recruitment has been great, then what has gone wrong? Because if his recruitment has been great, we should have a better squad/team than last season or else it wasnt great, was it? Or else, the squad/team is worse so it wasn't great recruitment.

Also, if his recruitment was great, then his coaching is fecking shite because we're 9th and we can't win a game for love nor money. And don't give me injuries, Pereira and Fred in CM is no worse on paper than some relegation standard sides and we've struggled against some of them. We had a full-strength midfield early in the season and looked like, guess what, Dogshit.

What's the common denominator in all of this? Ole's coaching.
His recruitment has been pretty bad and on top of that he let Smalling leave on loan. Daniel James has been a good signing for a very good fee, but should we credit Giggs for his arrival or Ole?

You just have to look at teams in Italy, Germany, Spain, Holland, France to see there was better players that could've been signed for potentially reasonable prices over the likes of AWB and Maguire. Tagliafico who is a LB at Ajax is comfortably better than both our fullbacks and cost a pittance in comparison. Kimmich cost Bayern €7m and Kostermann at Leipzig who Barca are linked to cost them €1m. Then you have Atal at Nice in France and there's many more I could name.
 

Sky1981

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I’m Ole out. But I stick to my opinion on our signings. I understand that a bad manager makes good players look bad. Two years ago we had Mourinho so of course defense was going to look better. You also contradict yourself about AWB. The rest of your reply seems to have disregarded what I wrote to begin with.
The defensive mourinho still scores more and conceded less.
 

ManchesterYoda

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I think Maguire and Wan-Bissaka are good signings. I don't think James is a good signing. I don't rate him at all at present, despite almost all other fans thinking he's the best thing since sliced bread. He's young though so hopefully he will improve. At the moment he isn't good enough and shouldn't be a first team starter.
 

troylocker

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All fantastic signings.

Any signing that immediately starts, is a success.

AWB is a phenomenal right back. You can decide what kind of flavour right back you want, but he is a top class right back. He will be a top class footballer.

Maguire is a top tier centre half. Strong, commanding, two decent feet. Great at Set pieces in attack and defence. He massively improved our defence and is head and shoulders better than all of our other centre backs.

James has been one of our best players this season. Very inconsistent. Might not pan out over the next 5 years, but he’s raw, talented, and you know that whatever level he reaches, he’ll have worked his tail off to ensure he’s squeezed every drop of talent from his career.

Why do fans need to hate EVERYTHING.

Hate the coaching.
Hate the game management.
Hate the style of play.
Hate the lack of anything resembling a midfield
Hate the owners
Hate the Board
Hate player attitudes

Hate the whole lot if you like. But it’s abundantly clear that all the players we signed, are better than what we had.

AWB would walk into top European and PL sides.
Maguire would too. He’d start at every club in the league.
James is a talent that will succeed or fail. But he cost a small sum, and will always be worth more than we paid.
Pretty much agree with everything here. Personally I would probably tone it down from fantastic signings to very good signings, but thats just me.

Unfortunately we are a living in a time where hate, populism, polarized argumentation and everything is either black or white are the flavours of the month. A time where a punchline is more important than motive or reason. There is so much doom, gloom, hate and anger in here, and it seems like the louder you scream the more fuel the negative spiral gets. It is so depressing. I have never, not once, seen anyone grow in a positive direction from being the target of hate and abuse. From their own! There is at least 15 threads in here just for bashing the manager. Shame on us! Come on, people!

I foresee that a good result tonight will also become a stick because he couldn't win with a better squad against SU and Villa. I hope we win and you all prove me wrong!
 

midnightmare

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If his recruitment has been great, then what has gone wrong? Because if his recruitment has been great, we should have a better squad/team than last season or else it wasnt great, was it? Or else, the squad/team is worse so it wasn't great recruitment.

Also, if his recruitment was great, then his coaching is fecking shite because we're 9th and we can't win a game for love nor money. And don't give me injuries, Pereira and Fred in CM is no worse on paper than some relegation standard sides and we've struggled against some of them. We had a full-strength midfield early in the season and looked like, guess what, Dogshit.

What's the common denominator in all of this? Ole's coaching.
Let's stop making it a monolith and consider what's being said.
1. Recruitment (getting players in) should be considered solely on whether the quality of incomings was good enough or not and whether they addressed clear gaps in the squad. Answer to that is "Yes". You can debate how good exactly Maguire is, but I'm quite sure nobody would argue that he's not (by quite a distance) the best CB we have...and that we have had since Rio and Vidic. He's nowhere close to their class, but he's definitely the best we've had since them. AWB is the ideal defensive FB. Comparisons to Valencia are laughable. He's the real deal defensively. Can he improve in attack? Of course! Hopefully he will. Or - I do hope for this - he will remain our option for games where defence is a priority while Laird steps into the role of the genuine attacking FB. James -> one of our best performers, so let's not even discuss.

2. Was recruitment sufficient? Obviously not. But, this does not lie at the manager's door in this case. Look at Ole's statements since about March. He clearly spoke about replacing and strengthening midfield as we were losing Herrera and had already lost Fellaini. Once the Lukaku stories came out, he said "we will get replacements for any players that leave". Then the window started passing us by and the leaks came about how the coaching staff was frustrated by delays. Finally, the counter-leaks broke about how the club worked on one signing at a time and signing was very difficult. That's when Ole (unlike Moo) changed tune to match what was going to come. I don't blame him for this. Bottomline, recruitment insufficiency is absolutely clear - and is why we don't "have a better squad/team than last season". But that's not at Ole's door.

3. On sales, which player that we sold / loaned would have helped us loads this season? Ummm... none. Therefore, good decisions there too.

In summary, as a club, we sucked at recruitment overall. As a manager, Ole ensured that incomings were of the required quality and profile.

Final point, yes, Ole's coaching leaves a lot to be questioned. However, our misgivings (and I'm in the "Ole out" camp) should not blind us to what went well.
 

Bestietom

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Recruitment has been good, except for there wasn't enough for the players we let go.
Herrera/Fellaini and Lukaku/Sanchez should definitely have been replaced, and this is why we are so short now.
A top midfielder and a prolific CF would have seen us up in top 4 place.
 
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Receruitment was pretty awful when you look at it as a whole. James would have been a perfect impact player in a SAF team and may even have won his place for some games, but here here's a 100% guaranteed starter every week, that aint good.

Maguire and AWB I like, but there is no doubt that we've either sold (Lukaku, Fellaini), loaned (Smalling) or alienated (Matic) players that are better than the players currently occupying those positions most weeks.
 

Nickelodeon

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Recruitment might be half decent. But overall the position of the squad is much worse than ever. So, somebody (Ole, Ed?) should be taking the blame for this rather than applauding Ole for clearing deadwood.

It's not like we sold wonderfully. How is clearing Smalling from the squad with no financial gain actually useful to us?

Ole said after his first game that "Football is easy when you have good players". Then he sold a good chunk without much replacements. Somebody should be sacked for the shambolic transfer dealings this summer. The reason why people are skeptical about getting a new man is because now, for the first time, we actually have a squad which is not even good on paper. Shambles really.
 

2 man midfield

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Shit players are still shit, and they still needed to go. I think the fact we let too many go at once was Ole’s way of telling the fans “don’t worry, I know they’re shit. I’m working on it.”

It also meant he got to play the youth which hopefully would buy him favour with the fans, but ultimately it’s results that do that and they haven’t been good enough.

Maguire and James have been good signings I think, and they could still be a part of a successful United team. Wan-Bissaka I’m not convinced by, I don’t think he offers enough going forward. I’d like to see Dalot play a few games when he’s back.
 

NoLogo

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Midifield has been a problem for years. Pogba alone was not enough to fix it which was also down to pretty much every midfielder turning out to be shit. Fellaini, Schneiderlin, Matic and Fred all aren't good enough to and Herrera was a mixed bag. Not surprising that through an area of such a lackluster midfield we are struggling like never before and it's quite astonishing how non of our managers are able to fix that problem.
 

Chesterlestreet

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Maguire and AWB I like, but there is no doubt that we've either sold (Lukaku, Fellaini), loaned (Smalling) or alienated (Matic) players that are better than the players currently occupying those positions most weeks.
Smalling: Possibly. I wont' argue against the idea that he might have been better than Lindelöf as a partner for Maguire. But I really don't think it's a clear cut case, for one thing - and a) he's thirty and b) wanted the move himself.

Lukaku: Forget it. He doesn't replace anyone in Ole's preferred attacking setup. Given how we actually play, he wouldn't improve us at all. As a bench/backup option - yes, possibly. But he doesn't fancy himself as a bench/backup option. Like Smalling, he wanted the move.

Fellaini: Yes, what? He might have, possibly, done better than Pereira or Fred in a designated CM/DM role? Yeah, he might have. But he was never anything but an utterly mediocre player in that capacity. His strengths were of the kind you exploit in a specialized setup - one that hardly anyone would want us to opt for. If Ole had kept Fellaini and played him to his strengths, he would've been slaughtered on here - not least because it probably wouldn't have yielded any better results.

Matic: Alienated as it seems, yes. But he has done quite a lot himself to find himself in that position. Specifically by being shite and looking decidedly finished on the top level. Do you really think that Ole should have gone for Matic as his go-to man (as Jose did)? If he had done so, he would have been slaughtered (again) for picking a player who isn't anywhere good enough (anymore).
 

romufc

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Why do fans need to hate EVERYTHING.

Hate the coaching.
Hate the game management.
Hate the style of play.
Hate the lack of anything resembling a midfield
Hate the owners
Hate the Board
Hate player attitudes
I will explain and see if you can counter:

1. None of the players have been coached, no improvements the coaches cant get players to even play at 80% of their ability.

2. Leaving subs too later when we have been outplayed. Most games we are outplayed in the first 20 mins yet we wait till 75 mins to make subs.

3. There is no style of play, there is nothing to like

4. there is no midfield.

5/ 6. Owners dont care about football

7. We conceded from a goal kick V Villa, there is an attitude problem.
 

gerdm07

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Funny, I don't remember too many posters writing that Maguire was a bad deal. Now, all the knives are out. Maguire is a very good central defender who can be our rock in the middle for years. His aerial wins are worth 20 mil a year. We just have to find a good partner for him, I like Lindelof but I'm not sure he is the answer.
 

romufc

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Funny, I don't remember too many posters writing that Maguire was a bad deal. Now, all the knives are out. Maguire is a very good central defender who can be our rock in the middle for years. His aerial wins are worth 20 mil a year. We just have to find a good partner for him, I like Lindelof but I'm not sure he is the answer.
Doesn't matter who you have at the back when the 6 others infront of the defensive line do nothing to defend, we will concede space and goals.

The defence has no option even on the ball, there are no options.
 

BusbyMalone

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I think Maguire and Wan-Bissaka are good signings. I don't think James is a good signing. I don't rate him at all at present, despite almost all other fans thinking he's the best thing since sliced bread. He's young though so hopefully he will improve. At the moment he isn't good enough and shouldn't be a first team starter.
He's arguably been our best player this season - in some games, he definitely has been. Maguire, on the other hand, definitely hasn't been our best player. I don't think we've seen a massive improvement with having him in the team, tbh. He's an upgrade on Jones, no doubt, but i don't think he's transformed us. AWB has been solid, started off well, but there's been a few creaks in his game recently. So, from my perspective, you have that all backwards.
 

Fosu-Mens

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Funny, I don't remember too many posters writing that Maguire was a bad deal. Now, all the knives are out. Maguire is a very good central defender who can be our rock in the middle for years. His aerial wins are worth 20 mil a year. We just have to find a good partner for him, I like Lindelof but I'm not sure he is the answer.
Many posters had issues with him as a player. Almost everyone thought that he was worth nowhere close to what we paid for him but that we basically had no choice.
 

gerdm07

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Doesn't matter who you have at the back when the 6 others infront of the defensive line do nothing to defend, we will concede space and goals.

The defence has no option even on the ball, there are no options.
I agree with that. I also see that our defenders would rather not pass to the midfielders even if they have some space. They don't fully trust that the mids will keep the ball.
 

BusbyMalone

First Man Falling
Joined
May 22, 2017
Messages
10,362
Funny, I don't remember too many posters writing that Maguire was a bad deal. Now, all the knives are out. Maguire is a very good central defender who can be our rock in the middle for years. His aerial wins are worth 20 mil a year. We just have to find a good partner for him, I like Lindelof but I'm not sure he is the answer.
There were many on here who had an issue with the fee we paid for him. While acknowledging that he's a good defender and an upgrade of what we had, the price was absurd and he wasn't in that category. I like the guy, but i don't think he's been THAT great for us, tbh.