[OL29]

He used to have an aura of strength around him. I remember his debut against Chelsea and he was strong and commanding, a ball magnet.

Now he looks like Phil Jones on 1 leg. what on earth has happened to him?!

Not to absolve him because there’s no excuses to play this poorly but he does look like he’s suffering from a bit of burnout.

 

[Adam-Utd]

Not to absolve him because there’s no excuses to play this poorly but he does look like he’s suffering from a bit of burnout.

he just looks mentally fried.

he’s so nervous on the ball, he doesn’t seem to trust his body anymore. I don’t think the captaincy is helping him either.

 

[Van Piorsing]

Our last captains before Harry were Valencia & Young. This underwhelming trend persists from few good years.

So bizarre to look from perspective how good he was in the summer for England. He took the pressure well enough then and suddenly for United he crumbles against shocking football sides in a bad form.

 

[Maureen-yo]

I wish he would play his passes a lot sooner. The extra touch or touches isn't needed.

Agreed, he takes an age to make a pass and sees to bloody telegraph his intentions too. We can’t switch the ball quickly across the back line with him playing the way he is at the moment.

 

[Acole9]

I'm losing patience with him. What the hell was he pointing at before the goal. If we buy another centre back he's finished.

 

[KennyBurner]

We paid 80 million for him and the best thing for us is to drop him. It hurts realizing how poor we are building a squad.

 

[tomaldinho1]

When he receives the ball it’s like a fecking egg timer gets turned by an ancient snail before he decides where to pass.

 

[AshRK]

His finger pointing reminds me of Lukaku. I hated it then and I hate it even more. Ragnick should just make a call and drop him. Lindelof and Varane need to be given chance as a pairing.

 

[SadlerMUFC]

He's not being scapegoated at all, everyone's being called out tonight.

Tonight everyone was horrible. But the goal was a fluke which started by a giveaway. Then Maxim loses control of the ball, which is the only reason it gets by Maguire, then lunges with a toe poke and picks top corner. That goal won't happen again. The biggest problem I saw tonight was that Maxim was targeting Maguire, so what does our coach do? Takes of a midfielder to expsose our back line even more. There was no balance in the squad at all tonight. I don't care who you are. If a player of Maxim's ability is going to be allowed to run at a centre half as much as he was allowed to tonight, he's going to get chances. I don't care if your name is Maguire, VVD, Ramos, or whoever else people seem to rate. A quick winger should not be able to run at a centre half as much as he was. And before anyone says "well Maguire should be able to deal with him", no he should not. We had absolutely no midfield tonight. and when there is no midfield and we are playing a 4-2-2-2 where our FB's our wingbacks, all you are doing is leaving your back 2 exposed. Many have given Verane a pass because it was his first game back. Sorry, but he could have been midseason form and he would have struggled tonight. This wasn't on Maguire. This was on the manager for continuing to pick basically the same team as Ole. I know changes aren't going to happen over night, but it is concerning to me when our midfield is playing so poorly and our managers thought to change things up isn't to bring on VdB or Matic, but to bring on another forward? WTF? This was absolutely brutal tonight and no one player should be taking the blame...

 

[Jericho]

I wish he would play his passes a lot sooner. The extra touch or touches isn't needed.

This is it exactly. He slows everything down because he thinks he’s a CB playmaker. Two touches Harry, just control it and pass it on.

 

[SadlerMUFC]

Incredible post considering we were shocking at the back whilst Lindelof and Bailly weren't in the squad.

And we've been shocking in the back with them in the squad. But they don't get scapegoated like Maguire does. Bailly is good for a major brainfart every game but gets free passes because he makes a last ditch tackle or goal saving block. Meanwhile the "experts" around here who rate him so highly because of that block are too daft to realize that the only reason he had to make that block was because of how far out of position he was.

 

[Dec9003]

And we've been shocking in the back with them in the squad. But they don't get scapegoated like Maguire does. Bailly is good for a major brainfart every game but gets free passes because he makes a last ditch tackle or goal saving block. Meanwhile the "experts" around here who rate him so highly because of that block are too daft to realize that the only reason he had to make that block was because of how far out of position he was.

Yeah, no. Lindelof and Bailly get plenty of stick on here. Having to point to other players to defend Maguires performance shows how poor he’s been. Judge him on his own without comparing him to lads that didn’t make the squad.

 

[Litch]

He can join the increasingly long line of players that turn to shite when they sign for us and feel the weight of a Utd shirt.

 

[bosnian_red]

Gonna be honest but I really don't like him as a player. I think he's a pretty good CB overall, but in awful form. But the style of player he is is just infuriating. He spends so much time on the ball to just play a pointless square pass or a hopeless hoof up field. I literally get irritated just seeing him touch the ball.

 

[JeffFromHK]

he really lacks urgency everytime we are chasing for goals. It was 92th minute and he still hounded the ball for 10 seconds before releasing like it was the 4th minute.

We need to get rid of him.

 

[Gazautd18]

Always thought he was just having a run of bad form.
Nope.
He's just shit.

 

[Mibabalou]

Albatross of a player, we will never win anything with him here.

 

[GifLord]

So error prone it's kinda sad at this point

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

This is it exactly. He slows everything down because he thinks he’s a CB playmaker. Two touches Harry, just control it and pass it on.

No, it’s better if he stops the ball dead, looks up and makes sure everyone is ready, makes sure the opponent has fully recovered and are back in position before starting the next sequence. Maguire is only being sporting.

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

His finger pointing reminds me of Lukaku. I hated it then and I hate it even more. Ragnick should just make a call and drop him. Lindelof and Varane need to be given chance as a pairing.

Varane was equally shit today.

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

Our last captains before Harry were Valencia & Young. This underwhelming trend persists from few good years.

So bizarre to look from perspective how good he was in the summer for England. He took the pressure well enough then and suddenly for United he crumbles against shocking football sides in a bad form.

That England set up basically guarded the hell out of all of those defenders though. They played 3/5atb along with 2 defensive mids covering in front of them as well. Southgate refused to utilize the attacking talent he had and played it super conservative the entire tournament. So basically it eliminated Maguire really having to play in space against attackers and allowed him to do what he does well in clean up defensively and dominate his own box aerially.

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

Varane was equally shit today.

Yes but Varane has shown his abilities for years at the highest level, and hadn't played in almost two months before today. He gets a bit of a pass.

Maguire has shown nothing his entire career apart from being able to defend his own box well while on lower level sides sitting deep. He would have been a 40m player if he wasn't English.

 

[Wing Attack Plan R]

Yes but Varane has shown his abilities for years at the highest level, and hadn't played in almost two months before today. He gets a bit of a pass.

Maguire has shown nothing his entire career apart from being able to defend his own box well while on lower level sides sitting deep. He would have been a 40m player if he wasn't English.

True.

 

[Tragically Hip]

That first ball he failed to deal with effectively was very telling; as a viewer you could feel the anxiety he felt in dealing with a routine play for a defender. To me it is all in his head. Normally we see this total loss of confidence with strikers like Torres and Shevchenko for example, but not so with CBs.

 

[JeffFromHK]

Maguire career Premier League goals conceded per game: 1.31

Evans career Premier League goals conceded per game: 1.02 (who spends more than half of his career in lower tier teams)
Smalling career Premier League goals conceded per game: 0.96

(Vidic career Premier League goals conceded per game: 0.63)

look at defenders who spend their whole career in low table teams:
ryan shawcross career Premier League goals conceded per game:1.29
Maya Yoshida career Premier League goals conceded per game:1.34

Maguire has similar goals conceded per game as shawcross and yoshida, while he has the luxury of being bailed out by like of De gea and Schmeichel JR, tells us a lot how much class he has.

 

[Bebestation]

Is he supposed to defend by himself when varane was equally crap today?

Sure Varane has been great in previous years - but that doesn't change that one defender can hold back an attack.

Dalot was shit at defending. Varane was making mistakes.

And then everyone is pointing their finger at Maguire for not doing the job!

 

[Amar__]

Maguire career Premier League goals conceded per game: 1.31

Evans career Premier League goals conceded per game: 1.02 (who spends more than half of his career in lower tier teams)
Smalling career Premier League goals conceded per game: 0.96

(Vidic career Premier League goals conceded per game: 0.63)

look at defenders who spend their whole career in low table teams:
ryan shawcross career Premier League goals conceded per game:1.29
Maya Yoshida career Premier League goals conceded per game:1.34

Maguire has similar goals conceded per game as shawcross and yoshida, while he has the luxury of being bailed out by like of De gea and Schmeichel JR, tells us a lot how much class he has.

If true, that doesn't read well for a defender.

 

[kouroux]

So error prone it's kinda sad at this point

Somehow he is convinced or was convinced he is good on the ball and takes ridiculous risks as a result. A simple header out for throw in would have been more secure

 

[antsmithmk]

I see Harry is once again being fully scapegoated. You guys are worse than Leaf fans (sorry, I'm Canadian). You don't improve a team by getting rid of your best players. Maguire is head and shoulders better than both Lindelof and Bailly. If you want to make the team better then you get rid of the worst players and then bring in a player who is better than Maguire that will keep him on the bench.

Are you watching the games? When Bailly has played this year he has looked twice the player Maguire has.

 

[Foxbatt]

He is not being scapegoated. He was crap. I am not blaming him for the goal because Varane got caught and will realize that he won't get time in the PL.
But Maguire also let SM get the ball on his right after pointing out to Dalot.
Then he thinks he is Ronald Koeman but takes a century to make a pass. By that time the opposition players had time to take a shite and then come back on to the pitch and get into position.

 

[freeurmind]

Is he supposed to defend by himself when varane was equally crap today?

Sure Varane has been great in previous years - but that doesn't change that one defender can hold back an attack.

Dalot was shit at defending. Varane was making mistakes.

And then everyone is pointing their finger at Maguire for not doing the job!

Yes how dare people expect our 80 million pound defender and captain to do his job properly.

 

[sebsheep]

Is he supposed to defend by himself when varane was equally crap today?

Sure Varane has been great in previous years - but that doesn't change that one defender can hold back an attack.

Dalot was shit at defending. Varane was making mistakes.

And then everyone is pointing their finger at Maguire for not doing the job!

Probably related to you being in Maguire's performance thread...

https://www.redcafe.net/threads/raphaël-varane-2021-22-performances.464417/page-34

https://www.redcafe.net/threads/diogo-dalot-2021-22-performances.464096/page-20

 

[United in sin]

I see Harry is once again being fully scapegoated. You guys are worse than Leaf fans (sorry, I'm Canadian). You don't improve a team by getting rid of your best players. Maguire is head and shoulders better than both Lindelof and Bailly. If you want to make the team better then you get rid of the worst players and then bring in a player who is better than Maguire that will keep him on the bench.

I don't rate Lindelof but he's been putting in better performances than Maguire for a while now. Bailly is superior to Maguire IMO.

 

[pratyush_utd]

There was a moment when he had 10 yards over opposition player but he barely made it to the ball. He is the slowest defender i have ever seen. If we want to play front foot pressing style with high back line, Maguire has no place in the starting eleven. For teams who sit back and defend in numbers, he is very good at that. Its why he was good initially but now have been found wanting.

Plus calling him ball playing CB is embarrassing to other defenders who can find their teammates with long and short pass.

 

[MadDogg]

I see Harry is once again being fully scapegoated. You guys are worse than Leaf fans (sorry, I'm Canadian). You don't improve a team by getting rid of your best players. Maguire is head and shoulders better than both Lindelof and Bailly. If you want to make the team better then you get rid of the worst players and then bring in a player who is better than Maguire that will keep him on the bench.

It is VERY debatable whether he is better than Lindelof. At his top level yes, but he's actually far more inconsistent than Lindelof (who is somebody who gets criticised for inconsistency himself).

Maguire's 1st season - Up and down like a yo-yo, he had some great matches, some ok matches, some terrible matches. He was the absolute definition of inconsistent that season as each match could be any kind of performance.
Maguire's 2nd season - Atrocious for the first few months of the season, improved a bit for a few months, then he was actually very good for the second half of the season.
Maguire's 3rd season - Atrocious throughout the first half of the season.

He has shown he can be top level or close to it (he was probably the second best central defender in the league for the second half of last season), but he's actually been poor more often than he's been good for us. He's only been dependably good for 1/5th of his time with us, while being terrible for 2/5th's and completely inconsistent in the other 2/5th's.

Maguire rightfully should have started the season as first choice ahead of Lindelof, but it's close enough between them that it should ultimately be whoever performs better. And if you think Maguire has been better than Lindelof this season (or if it's even been close) then that speaks for an incredible bias from you. Lindelof has been easily our best performing defender this season, Maguire our worst, with Varane being somewhere in the middle (only counting our main three).

 

[kouroux]

Even for his yellow card, you could predict he was gonna lung. St Max knew it too and baited him basically

 

[zurnalist]

He can't defend, he takes ages to even make a 3 yard sideways pass. He is dangerously slow.His mind is weak and he makes about 3 very dangerous mistakes per game.

Oh captain, my captain.

The passing thing boggles my mind. When it's 10 minutes til the end and we are trailing and he just sits on the ball for twenty minutes until he makes a pass endangering the whole defence although there are obvious options... it's so so weird.

 

[mattunited1978]

He's a joke, defensively all over the spot and fecking takes forever to pass the ball, half the time giving it away with a punt upfield after taking a fecking lifetime to weigh up his options. fecking shite.

 

[MackRobinson]

He's a terrible fit for any top side that wants to consistently play a high line. He doesn't have the agility, composure, or ability to read the game for a team that wants to play on the front foot. He will be the downfall of any manager who continues to play him, regardless of the formation.

 

[Roux]

Genuinely one of the worst center backs i have ever seen at this club - stands on the ball for an eternity, passes backwards and side to side most of the match.
He is an absolute dream for opposition teams who are leading again United.