[romufc]

They're probably on a similar money though? Besides with De Ligt you're paying for his potential as well, he will probably improve further, but will Maguire?

Don't quote me but a quick google search, De Ligt is on 280k a week and Maguire on 190k a week.

Yes, De Ligt will improve but we needed someone for now, and he is 27 so probably his peak now.

 

[roonster09]

Don't quote me but a quick google search, De Ligt is on 280k a week and Maguire on 190k a week.

Yes, De Ligt will improve but we needed someone for now, and he is 27 so probably his peak now.

De Ligt earns 12 million after tax, reported by reliable Italian journalists.


Fabrizio Romao

The offer would give the centre-back a basic salary of around £270,000 a week with add-ons increasing his possible earnings to £415,000 a week.

 

[romufc]

Some of us wanted Ake at the time, who was valued around 30-40m. Or just tell Leicester to stick their 90m valuation and continue with Smalling for another year.

Ake and Lindelof, that is exactly what we do not want.

Smalling has been tried and has failed. He did not fit Ole's style of play... and don't tell me we dont play from the back because we do and have scored goals this season building from the back. Smalling cannot play from the back.

 

[romufc]

De Ligt earns 12 million after tax, reported by reliable Italian journalists.


Fabrizio Romao

Which is double what Maguire is on, the transfer fee of £65m. I do not think he would have hacked the pressure of United fans at his age, especially when the team wasnt playing well.

That is alot of money for a player who is not established.

 

[roonster09]

Which is double what Maguire is on, the transfer fee of £65m. I do not think he would have hacked the pressure of United fans at his age, especially when the team wasnt playing well.

That is alot of money for a player who is not established.

Also going by reports he rejected us. So no point talking about him.

 

[Fracture90]

De Ligt is on 8 million + 4 million after tax wages, which is around double of what Maguire earns.

Also going by reports, he rejected us. We should have signed Demiral though, there were reports that Juventus wanted 40 million for him or should have checked with Dayot to see if he is interested in the move.

Isn't his deal structured to be on €8M initially which would further increase for those €4M incrementally year after year throughout the duration of the contract alongside certain bonuses?

Also i honestly don't think Maguire is on a €6M considering we spent a world record fee to get him. More likely he's closer to €10M.

Without the benefit of a hindsight, Demiral at that moment in time was largely unproven, with very few appearances in Juve's shirt. I fancied Akanji from Dortumnd for that money. Wonder whatever happened to him.

 

[roonster09]

Isn't his deal structured to be on €8M initially which would further increase for those €4M incrementally year after year throughout the duration of the contract alongside certain bonuses?

Also i honestly don't think Maguire is on a €6M considering we spent a world record fee to get him. More likely he's closer to €10M.

Without the benefit of a hindsight, Demiral at that moment in time was largely unproven, with very few appearances in Juve's shirt. I fancied Akanji from Dortumnd for that money. Wonder whatever happened to him.

That 12 million is after tax. In the other post, I posted from Fabrizio Romano article where he says De Ligt agreed 12 million wages. 8 million basic + 4 million bonus. Maguire is not even close to earning that much.

 

[romufc]

Also going by reports he rejected us. So no point talking about him.

Yes that too, but I was trying to recall the CB's we were after last season. He was talked about alot on here.

Maguire was first choice for Manutd and Man City, they didnt want to pay the money.

Granted Maguire has made mistakes this season but I would question if Manutd should spend £85-100m on Sancho.

Pogba - £90m, until like 2 weeks ago he is a waste of money in alot of fans eyes. My opinion, we needed a CM for a very long time and got him, not many of his ilk were around, very fortunate to have him at our club.

Maguire - £80m Along with AWB has improved our defence, brought leadership to the group, believe it or not, he clearly has as the atmosphere in the dressing room is different. Consistently criticised after every mistake, every goal is being dissected to the Nth degree. Rival fans put out clips of Maguire's fails and our fans jump. I have seen alot of CB's in the PL make mistakes this season, it happens.

Sancho - fans saying pay the money - a season on if we are playing okay and Jadon has a slump of form, missed a few goals, there will be fans saying he is waste of money.

IMO, I don't care if we over paid in each instance by £20m, I want to see better players at United. Sometimes they will work out, others they wont. Comparing VVD to Maguire just because of the fee is silly because we all know VVD is the better defender. We overpaid with Fred but got a good deal with Bruno.

Alot of fans can come up with names of CB's around Europe, but until you go and dissect every goal they concede to how Maguire and Lindelof have been you wont know how good they actually are.

 

[Fracture90]

Don't quote me but a quick google search, De Ligt is on 280k a week and Maguire on 190k a week.

Yes, De Ligt will improve but we needed someone for now, and he is 27 so probably his peak now.

Honestly even at this moment De Ligt is a better defender. I don't think our team is being set up as a win-now team, think Ole is building for the future, at least he said as much. Of course that doesn't mean that we'll pass on the opportunity to challenge for silverware if such opportunity arises. What im saying is that De Ligt would fit our timeline perfectly.

 

[romufc]

Honestly even at this moment De Ligt is a better defender. I don't think our team is being set up as a win-now team, think Ole is building for the future, at least he said as much. Of course that doesn't mean that we'll pass on the opportunity to challenge for silverware if such opportunity arises. What im saying is that De Ligt would fit our timeline perfectly.

See you are saying this for the sake of it. Have you watched De Ligt this season? I have seen a few Juve games and I watch match highlights and he has been found out.

I know someone will send me a De Ligt video on youtube of his best tackles and goals but it means nothing, even Maguire can have those.

To me it isnt about Maguire making mistakes, every defender makes mistakes, its about how often he makes those mistakes. How many mistakes have cost us goals?

 

[Fracture90]

See you are saying this for the sake of it. Have you watched De Ligt this season? I have seen a few Juve games and I watch match highlights and he has been found out.

I know someone will send me a De Ligt video on youtube of his best tackles and goals but it means nothing, even Maguire can have those.

To me it isnt about Maguire making mistakes, every defender makes mistakes, its about how often he makes those mistakes. How many mistakes have cost us goals?

Thing is I've watched Seria A quite a bit this season, in fact i tend to watch EPL, Calcio and Primera a lot every year, top teams at least.

At the start of the season he was shaky, giving away penalities like candy, albeit in some cases he was unlucky to have handball called on him, but nevertheless he was making mistakes. Then he got benched with Demiral taking his spot. After Demiral's injury he got back in the starting 11 and he was much better, and is actually their best CB atm.

 

[AFC NimbleThumb]

Some of us wanted Ake at the time, who was valued around 30-40m. Or just tell Leicester to stick their 90m valuation and continue with Smalling for another year.

This./

+ spend the £80mil on the attack & get Bruno in earlier.

Imagine where we’d be now had we got Bruno in August & kept Smalling.

 

[romufc]

Thing is I've watched Seria A quite a bit this season, in fact i tend to watch EPL, Calcio and Primera a lot every year, top teams at least.

At the start of the season he was shaky, giving away penalities like candy, albeit in some cases he was unlucky to have handball called on him, but nevertheless he was making mistakes. Then he got benched with Demiral taking his spot. After Demiral's injury he got back in the starting 11 and he was much better, and is actually their best CB atm.

He has improved, I can give you that but even the goal they conceded against Atalanta, he got turned, if that happened to Maguire, this whole place would be blowing up. But it wasnt such a big error, it was good play from the defender.

Now he has improved when he is playing under less pressure, they are 8 points clear at the top. When he was under pressure he was poor, if he was at United, every mistake would be reminded of. Can we please give our players a break for once? I am not saying Maguire is perfect, but he is who we have. It seems alot of fans want to make the point of "told you so, he is over priced, expensive and crap"

 

[hmchan]

The thing about Maguire is he is a top CB but has deficiencies. We all know we overpaid by at least £20m.

Realistically, what were the alternatives? I will tell you the names mentioned last summer.. Ruben Dias, Koulibaly, De Ligt.

Ruben Dias - £60m and we do not know how well he would adapt.

Koulibaly - £100m was asking price

De Ligt - Wanted crazy sums and he hasnt really been that much better than Maguire making alot of mistakes in italy.

This is the problem we currently have. We are always linked to and obsessed with big names, and we decide to chase them even though we know we are overpaying. We've lost the ability to develop cheaply signed players on our own, which we're proud of over the years. Being duped in the transfer market is the inevitable result.

There are so many center backs all over the world and with such a huge scouting network, I'm not sure why we can't find a decent one with a reasonable price. For example Leicester upgraded Maguire with Soyuncu who only costed 20m; the transfer fee for West Ham to bring in Diop was just 25m. Both transfers took place just a year before we bought Maguire.

Paying 80m for Maguire was always a dumb move, especially when everyone knew he's not a significant upgrade to Smalling. The more sensible thing to do was to keep Smalling, spend 60m for Bruno (because our attacking midfield was very weak) and 20m for a CB. If the 20m CB succeeded, congratulations; if not, it still did less harm than going all in for a mediocre defender.

 

[dev1l]

I wonder how many of the experts over here watched DeLigt, Koulibaly, Dias and the rest play for more than 2 games this season.
I don't pretend to be a self proclaimed expert either, but I watch highlights of Serie A games and sometimes whole games.
Well both Koulibaly and DeLigt despite their undisputed talent committed a number of errors. They re human after all..
As for Ake, I cannot see him an alternative to Maguire, more of a partner to compliment him.
We needed someone strong in air at the back and that s not one of Ake s best assets.
Overall, I m satisfied with Maguire , despite his flaws and I still believe that everything considered he was the best option out there , even if horribly expensive

 

[romufc]

This is the problem we currently have. We are always linked to and obsessed with big names, and we decide to chase them even though we know we are overpaying. We've lost the ability to develop cheaply signed players on our own, which we're proud of over the years. Being duped in the transfer market is the inevitable result.

There are so many center backs all over the world and with such a huge scouting network, I'm not sure why we can't find a decent one with a reasonable price. For example Leicester upgraded Maguire with Soyuncu who only costed 20m; the transfer fee for West Ham to bring in Diop was just 25m. Both transfers took place just a year before we bought Maguire.

Paying 80m for Maguire was always a dumb move, especially when everyone knew he's not a significant upgrade to Smalling. The more sensible thing to do was to keep Smalling, spend 60m for Bruno (because our attacking midfield was very weak) and 20m for a CB. If the 20m CB succeeded, congratulations; if not, it still did less harm than going all in for a mediocre defender.

Diop, the one playing in West Ham and was valued at £60m by them?

Soyuncu, again he has made the same amount if not more mistakes than Maguire this season.

If Man City got Maguire for £60m, we would all be sat here saying why didnt we pay more and get him.

 

[BringNaniBack]

He has a presence about him, but as a defender he's not actually very good is he.

 

[romufc]

Overall, I m satisfied with Maguire , despite his flaws and I still believe that everything considered he was the best option out there , even if horribly expensive

Maybe one day if we ever looked at the positive attributes that players bring to the club, we will appreciate our players.

Anyone remember how much criticism Evans got?

 

[hmchan]

Diop, the one playing in West Ham and was valued at £60m by them?

Soyuncu, again he has made the same amount if not more mistakes than Maguire this season.

If Man City got Maguire for £60m, we would all be sat here saying why didnt we pay more and get him.

I mean, when West Ham and Leicester could bring in Diop and Soyuncu from other leagues at 20-25m, why can't we do the same with our huge scouting network?

 

[UnitedChampionsAgain]

Never thought he was good enough for United. Decent in the air but always slow and cumbersome.
A leopard never changes its spots, or in this case, a carthorse.

 

[Revaulx]

Apparently Maguire and Lindelof are good ball playing defenders but I don't see them switching the play at all with their passing. They are good at running with the ball but when it comes to distribution, it's not good. They should be passing the ball from deep instead of relying on Pogba to do that.

Very much so. This is why I miss Blind.

 

[A-man]

The thing about Maguire is he is a top CB but has deficiencies. We all know we overpaid by at least £20m.

Realistically, what were the alternatives? I will tell you the names mentioned last summer.. Ruben Dias, Koulibaly, De Ligt.

Ruben Dias - £60m and we do not know how well he would adapt.

Koulibaly - £100m was asking price

De Ligt - Wanted crazy sums and he hasnt really been that much better than Maguire making alot of mistakes in italy.

What I’ve seen from de Ligt in Italy has not impressed me. He also seems like a slow turner, like Maguire. Hard to compare them when they play in different leagues but I prefer Harry.

 

[mancan92]

Diop, the one playing in West Ham and was valued at £60m by them?

Soyuncu, again he has made the same amount if not more mistakes than Maguire this season.

If Man City got Maguire for £60m, we would all be sat here saying why didnt we pay more and get him.

His point is we don't need to pay for over priced decent players. We should have scouting network good enough to identify similar level players who would play to similar level of those players and pay half the price.

 

[Cassidy]

Diop, the one playing in West Ham and was valued at £60m by them?

Soyuncu, again he has made the same amount if not more mistakes than Maguire this season.

If Man City got Maguire for £60m, we would all be sat here saying why didnt we pay more and get him.

Doubt that. Similarly no one here is saying why didnt we sign Stones.

 

[TsuWave]

Not a fan.

We made him captain too and have to justify the outlay, which means he’s unstoppable and I’ll have to watch him moving matrix slow-motion for years to come. I also don’t see the “leadership” you often see brought up. The guy is just....

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

His point is we don't need to pay for over priced decent players. We should have scouting network good enough to identify similar level players who would play to similar level of those players and pay half the price.

I think we need to understand why we had to pay that money first. What we need was a leadership & bring composure in defense.

Who else is ready to step up to be a leader that we can buy last summer? Our scout could find us a cheaper CB as talented as Soyuncu, but he's not ready at the stage to step up as a leader. Maguire is the leader in England defense that also made into semi final of World Cup. His leadership might worse than Terry & Rio, but no one else available better than him for leadership & composure last summer.

It's similar to Liverpool signed VVD. They spent big on VVD because they need that leader at the back, not just because he was great. And then they can spend peanut on talented one to pair with him like Joe Gomez. It's not easy to find & develop a leader of centre back nowdays. We should have spend the money on VVD last time instead of Lukaku & Lindelof.

 

[RedRonaldo]

Let’s use the whoscored rating to compare some of the top defenders this season:

VVD - 7.38
Azpilicueta - 7.16
Maguire - 7.11
Ramos - 7.08
Godín - 7.05
Pique - 7.04
Acerbi - 7.03
Palomino - 6.98
Smalling - 6.97
Silva - 6.97
Djimsiti - 6.96
Evans - 6.95
Laporte - 6.93
Dias - 6.93
Zouma - 6.92
Felipe - 6.92
Boateng - 6.85
De Ligt - 6.83
Bonucci - 6.78
Lindelöf - 6.69
Koulibaly - 6.65
Skriniar - 6.59

Surprisingly Maguire has been one of the top performer this season, at least according to whoscored. Admittedly I was one of his biggest critics because of his lack of pace, slow movement and occasional defensive mistakes which cost us goals, not to say his overpriced fee too. But he has been doing alright overall if compared to others, to be fair.

 

[Mcking]

All those people blaming Maguire for the second goal, hilarious. You could see they read their 'opinions' from The Dailymail.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

He has improved, I can give you that but even the goal they conceded against Atalanta, he got turned, if that happened to Maguire, this whole place would be blowing up. But it wasnt such a big error, it was good play from the defender.

Now he has improved when he is playing under less pressure, they are 8 points clear at the top. When he was under pressure he was poor, if he was at United, every mistake would be reminded of. Can we please give our players a break for once? I am not saying Maguire is perfect, but he is who we have. It seems alot of fans want to make the point of "told you so, he is over priced, expensive and crap"

Maguire would get absolutely slaughtered for that on here. It's actually reminiscent of Maguire at his worst turning like a barge.

Not to mention if he'd given away all the penalties that De Ligt and Soyuncu have this season. Imagine if Maguire, like Soyuncu, had conceded 3 penalties and got sent off at the most important part of the season like Soyuncu has, that's before you factor in all the micro-mistakes Soy makes that Maguire gets slaughtered for on here.

 

[romufc]

I mean, when West Ham and Leicester could bring in Diop and Soyuncu from other leagues at 20-25m, why can't we do the same with our huge scouting network?

His point is we don't need to pay for over priced decent players. We should have scouting network good enough to identify similar level players who would play to similar level of those players and pay half the price.

Well firstly, we tried that with Linedelof and Bailly, similar fees via the scouting network. No one knows how well they will do in a different league at that age.

Diop and Soyuncu are not better than Maguire or Lindelof.

Yes, they look better because they play for a team that does not look at every goal conceded to the nth degree, if they did so, they would be worse than Maguire.

Diop plays for a West Ham team that defends in numbers, if he makes a mistake there are 4/5 players around him to cover.

Maguire when mistakes are made is left 2 v 2 because we are a different team.

Like it or not, being a CB at United, City, Liverpool, Chelsea is a different ball game to other teams in the league.

 

[Adam-Utd]

All those people blaming Maguire for the second goal, hilarious. You could see they read their 'opinions' from The Dailymail.

Yeah I don't get this. They are zonal marking and the ball dips into Matic's area.

People are making way too much of a screen shot in action "marking AWB" how stupid.

 

[Fracture90]

He has improved, I can give you that but even the goal they conceded against Atalanta, he got turned, if that happened to Maguire, this whole place would be blowing up. But it wasnt such a big error, it was good play from the defender.

Now he has improved when he is playing under less pressure, they are 8 points clear at the top. When he was under pressure he was poor, if he was at United, every mistake would be reminded of. Can we please give our players a break for once? I am not saying Maguire is perfect, but he is who we have. It seems alot of fans want to make the point of "told you so, he is over priced, expensive and crap"

Lovely piece of skill from Gomes there, tricky little sod, but yeah he misjudged the situation badly. That being he's young and mobile enough to react better in situations like that in the future, in fact i remember him holding his own against Mbappe playing for Netherland.

About pressure I'm not sure i agree all that much because he won the league with Ajax and made it to the CL semifinals all whilst being their captain and arguably their best player. On the other hand not many people expected us to be fighting for top4 this season, we were written off from the beginning as this season was supposed to to one of transition.

All those people blaming Maguire for the second goal, hilarious. You could see they read their 'opinions' from The Dailymail.

I don't think there are many people reading those newspapers outside of UK, even less so for their sports pages.

 

[romufc]

What I’ve seen from de Ligt in Italy has not impressed me. He also seems like a slow turner, like Maguire. Hard to compare them when they play in different leagues but I prefer Harry.

Maguire would get absolutely slaughtered for that on here. It's actually reminiscent of Maguire at his worst turning like a barge.

Not to mention if he'd given away all the penalties that De Ligt and Soyuncu have this season. Imagine if Maguire, like Soyuncu, had conceded 3 penalties and got sent off at the most important part of the season like Soyuncu has, that's before you factor in all the micro-mistakes Soy makes that Maguire gets slaughtered for on here.

The two points are spot on. I agree we over paid for Maguire, no one is denying that. We all agree that he is not VVD, so why is everyone comparing him to VVD? I get that we paid the sum, but we paid £80m because that is the value of Maguire in our team rather than the value of his defending ability only.

So imagine if we got De Ligt because he was the Caf favourite, £65m and £280k wages and his performances this season have not been better than Maguire. Maguire brings alot more to the team, he fits what Ole is trying to build, an English international. If De Ligt had these issues at United, the media will be getting on him, calling him a flop etc however; Maguire doesn't get that because the media like him. This is an advantage to Manutd, yes there is English Bias, but we know there is and there will be so why not use it to your advantage?

I keep hearing that Soyuncu has had an amazing season, and like you have said above, imagine those penalties he conceded? The caf would go mental.

When things are going well, every player looks slick, just like Soyuncu may have done when Leicester were on their winning run but when things go bad, how many mistakes has he made? Numerous.

When things go bad, who is the constant in our team? Maguire, he is always there for this team. People do not understand the impact Maguire has had on this team.

 

[VP89]

Yeah I don't get this. They are zonal marking and the ball dips into Matic's area.

People are making way too much of a screen shot in action "marking AWB" how stupid.

To be honest I think that corner was an absolute peach of a ball and most elite defences would have had a serious problem dealing with it. We wouldn't be talking it about it so much if we were 3-1 up and they just scored to make it 3-2.

 

[romufc]

Lovely piece of skill from Gomes there, tricky little sod, but yeah he misjudged the situation badly. That being he's young and mobile enough to react better in situations like that in the future, in fact i remember him holding his own against Mbappe playing for Netherland.

About pressure I'm not sure i agree all that much because he won the league with Ajax and made it to the CL semifinals all whilst being their captain and arguably their best player. On the other hand not many people expected us to be fighting for top4 this season, we were written off from the beginning as this season was supposed to to one of transition.



I don't think there are many people reading those newspapers outside of UK, even less so for their sports pages.

Lovely piece of skill? How many times have you heard that here? When Maguire got nutmegged, how many fans said lovely skill. That is the difference when it comes to judging a United player and one from another team. If fans judged players on the same metric, we can have a discussion.

Dutch league, coming through he ranks and captaining the team is not something big compared to going to one of the biggest clubs, eyes on you every week. It is clear, he was struggling hence why he got dropped at the start of the season. Could Manutd afford to drop Maguire when we need a solid defender? No.

Regarding the newspaper, I don't think you have read the posts yesterday, the blame was 50% Maguire and 50% Lindelof when they had nothing to do with that goal. There were 3 Manutd players in the front post to deal with that ball.

 

[Adam-Utd]

To be honest I think that corner was an absolute peach of a ball and most elite defences would have had a serious problem dealing with it. We wouldn't be talking it about it so much if we were 3-1 up and they just scored to make it 3-2.

Pretty much. Flat and fast and right into their man at the front post who flicks it on.

The only way we clear it is if we have somebody already that the back post in the right position, but it just didn't work out.

Unfortunately fate wasn't with us in that match, I just knew when Williams went off and we couldn't bring somebody on we would slip.

 

[Fracture90]

Lovely piece of skill? How many times have you heard that here? When Maguire got nutmegged, how many fans said lovely skill. That is the difference when it comes to judging a United player and one from another team. If fans judged players on the same metric, we can have a discussion.

Dutch league, coming through he ranks and captaining the team is not something big compared to going to one of the biggest clubs, eyes on you every week. It is clear, he was struggling hence why he got dropped at the start of the season. Could Manutd afford to drop Maguire when we need a solid defender? No.

Regarding the newspaper, I don't think you have read the posts yesterday, the blame was 50% Maguire and 50% Lindelof when they had nothing to do with that goal. There were 3 Manutd players in the front post to deal with that ball.

I get your point but Gomes made a 180° turn and a knee flick pass on a dime in a split second, pretty sure 95% of CB's on earth would struggle for that one and you can't really see the danger, whilst Maguire gets turned when he's looking at the opponent, taking them head on and is well aware of the danger ahead.

Mate he was 19 years old captain in a team that won Eredivisie and knocked out some European giants the likes of Juventus and Real Madrid all whilst playing attacking, great on the eye football, i think you're selling De Ligt short in this one. Not an easy feat at all.

 

[mancan92]

All those people blaming Maguire for the second goal, hilarious. You could see they read their 'opinions' from The Dailymail.

Or watched the match and saw maguire not use any of his experience to react to a situation and instead get drawn to a ball he was never going to win.

 

[romufc]

I get your point but Gomes made a 180° turn and a knee flick pass on a dime in a split second, pretty sure 95% of CB's on earth would struggle for that one and you can't really see the danger, whilst Maguire gets turned when he's looking at the opponent, taking them head on and is well aware of the danger ahead.

Mate he was 19 years old captain in a team that won Eredivisie and knocked out some European giants the likes of Juventus and Real Madrid all whilst playing attacking, great on the eye football, i think you're selling De Ligt short in this one. Not an easy feat at all.

No I can appreciate skill, in my opinion any defender can get done. My point was, when Maguire gets beaten like that, all hell breaks loose. We should have signed "De ligt", "koulibaly" when I bet you 50% of the posters have not watched 90 mins of Koulibaly apart from UCL games.

Maguire looks really good when playing against Liverpool, City and we have to defend in numbers.

No, its not easy feat but as I have said before, when teams are playing well and winning, captains look good, when a team is in poor form is when those characteristics are tested. Coming into a United rebuild takes big personalities, there will be criticism, at the age of 21, I do not think it would have been fair for him to receive the criticism.

Do you think we would have conceded less goals with De Ligt or any other defender? If not, they would all receive the same criticism.

How many glaring mistakes has Lindelof made this season? yet some fans blame him for almost every goal we concede.

 

[Fracture90]

No I can appreciate skill, in my opinion any defender can get done. My point was, when Maguire gets beaten like that, all hell breaks loose. We should have signed "De ligt", "koulibaly" when I bet you 50% of the posters have not watched 90 mins of Koulibaly apart from UCL games.

Maguire looks really good when playing against Liverpool, City and we have to defend in numbers.

No, its not easy feat but as I have said before, when teams are playing well and winning, captains look good, when a team is in poor form is when those characteristics are tested. Coming into a United rebuild takes big personalities, there will be criticism, at the age of 21, I do not think it would have been fair for him to receive the criticism.

Do you think we would have conceded less goals with De Ligt or any other defender? If not, they would all receive the same criticism.

How many glaring mistakes has Lindelof made this season? yet some fans blame him for almost every goal we concede.

I agree that any defender can get skinned, but some are easier to go past due to their limited mobility and reading of the game.

For example that piece of Skill from Gomes would turn any defender on earth imo, but how many of the top CB's would have stopped Bergwijn and Stanislas if they attempted on them what they did to Maguire?