Maguire's persistent ball hogging

[noodlehair]

When is someone on the coaching staff or in the team going to finally tell him to knock this off?

Can someone explain to me how it helps the team to have a centreback who can't play a simple pass without walking around with the ball for 20 seconds first? and who also seems completely incapable of actually giving the ball to his midfield at all? Nearly every pass he does play is either a hospital ball to the wing or pinged vaguely in the direction of one of the forwards.

 

[OhGee]

L o L wasn’t he supposed to be better than Smalling at that...

 

[Nevilles.Wear.Prada]

He formulates 4D chess moves ahead in time that the rest of the team just unable to decipher. After 20 seconds of intense calculation ala Dr.Strange, he had to give it to lindeloff at 6m away. We are not ready for Ball Playing Defenders yet.

 

[acnumber9]

It’s infuriating to watch. It annoys me greatly that he’s handed the captaincy after being at the club five minutes and to date his best performance was a decent debut against Chelsea. I can’t think of a single moment in any game where I’ve thought that was a great piece of defending by Maguire. What we’ve got is an ok defender who can’t effectively pass the ball.

 

[Judas]

Who is he exactly meant to pass too? Have none of you seen the laughable movement ahead of him? He's clearly been given the instruction to play like he does.

 

[iluvoursolskjær]

His passing is shit, even the simple ones.

 

[Shane88]

Watch at 21:20 in the match. Just watch it.

No team wanting to play quick football will be able to with him back there starting everything at a snail's pace.

 

[Paxi]

Who is he exactly meant to pass too? Have none of you seen the laughable movement ahead of him? He's clearly been given the instruction to play like he does.

I feel like he has his wings clipped since he came here. He was way more adventurous, marauding even for Leicester and England.

 

[Judas]

I feel like he has his wings clipped since he came here. He was way more adventurous, marauding even for Leicester and England.

Another case of someone coming here and looking almost instantly worse, and somehow people thinking we're going in the right direction.

 

[noodlehair]

Who is he exactly meant to pass too? Have none of you seen the laughable movement ahead of him? He's clearly been given the instruction to play like he does.

Nah this excuse doesn't wash. Everton last week for example, Fred was available for him to pass to virtually every time he picked up the ball, and he ignored him time and time again. A centrback shouldn't be constantly ignoring his midfield. Especially one as average and slow at passing as Maguire.

 

[noodlehair]

I feel like he has his wings clipped since he came here. He was way more adventurous, marauding even for Leicester and England.

Another case of someone coming here and looking almost instantly worse, and somehow people thinking we're going in the right direction.

Not to burst the bubble of delusion here, but he is exactly the same for England. It was a big problem for them in the World Cup because him and Stones were both at it.

Leicester have also mysteriously become much more effective at moving the ball from defence to attack since we signed Maguire.

 

[Judas]

Nah this excuse doesn't wash. Everton last week for example, Fred was available for him to pass to virtually every time he picked up the ball, and he ignored him time and time again. A centrback shouldn't be constantly ignoring his midfield. Especially one as average and slow at passing as Maguire.

I wouldn't rush to pass to Fred either though. What exactly is he going to do with it? Might be a bit unfair, but the whole structure of how our team function is so bad, and so many on here have accepted players like Fred as good enough for our future which to me is mad.

 

[Paxi]

Not to burst the bubble of delusion here, but he is exactly the same for England. It was a big problem for them in the World Cup because him and Stones were both at it.

Leicester have also mysteriously become much more effective at moving the ball from defence to attack since we signed Maguire.

I'm not going to argue with you but maybe I just felt like that because I mostly payed attention when he was good.

 

[noodlehair]

It’s infuriating to watch. It annoys me greatly that he’s handed the captaincy after being at the club five minutes and to date his best performance was a decent debut against Chelsea. I can’t think of a single moment in any game where I’ve thought that was a great piece of defending by Maguire. What we’ve got is an ok defender who can’t effectively pass the ball.

His defending is another matter and I think some of it has been laughably bad as well. Like the goal away at Chelsea where he just let someone flick on a header to themselves and then jog up the pitch and score. Or Sheffield United when he decided appealling for a non existent handball was more important than defending his own six yard box.

He has had one or two decent games defensively though. At home to Leicester he was decent. So at least there is some hope there. I've not seen a game yet though, for us, England or Leicester, where his incessant pratting around with the ball has been anything other than a hindrence to his own team.

Van Der Vaart called him up on it in the Nations League when he said he was England's worst player.

 

[noodlehair]

I wouldn't rush to pass to Fred either though. What exactly is he going to do with it? Might be a bit unfair, but the whole structure of how our team function is so bad, and so many on here have accepted players like Fred as good enough for our future which to me is mad.

Fred is a better footballer and passer than Maguire. I don't think that's even remotely up for debate. It's literally Maguire's job as a centreback to give the ball to his midfield, not ignore them.

 

[noodlehair]

I'm not going to argue with you but maybe I just felt like that because I mostly payed attention when he was good.

Well again, I can't think of a single time I've watched him where his arsing around with the ball has in any way helped his team. I've seen games where he hasn't done it so much, or games where he has at least defended well. I've yet to see a game where I've not found his inability to play a simple pass annoying and counter productive.

I'm not sure there is a situation in a game where a centreback prefering to sod around with the ball rather than give it to a team mate is actually a good thing. I mean when is this possibly going to be of any use?

 

[Isotope]

Why did he act like he's fecking Beckenbauer in every game? Just get the ball to midfielder, and let the midfielder to do the fecking passing.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

He's fairly good but you don't spend 80 million on fairly good. His ability on the ball is vastly overrated as well as is his areal prowell. Seems a solid CB with adept ability on the ball, but that's something that's not hard to find so it's rather perplexing why we spent a fortune on the chap.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Why did he act like he's fecking Beckenbauer in every game? Just get the ball to midfielder, and let the midfielder to do the fecking passing.

He's obviously supposed to bring the ball out of defence. But he doesn't actually seem to do much with it. Almost always passes it out wide. I'd rather him defend brilliantly tbh.

 

[Isotope]

He's obviously supposed to bring the ball out of defence. But he doesn't actually seem to do much with it. Almost always passes it out wide. I'd rather him defend brilliantly tbh.

Which is fine, I guess, as it is one of his strength. But like you said, it was ineffective and just looked like a meaningless show. It's either because the tactic couldn't use his ability, or he doesn't actually have any vision about game flow.

 

[YzWayne]

I think people should not forget another the other CB we have, both of them are losing too much possession.

 

[Nep77]

Our whole movement off the ball is issue with our player unable to provide passing option to the player with the ball, This is down to the coaching and has been persistent problem for years with different Manager.

 

[Yagami]

Blind had the same problem. It's no coincidence. Our movement is terrible.

Overall, I'm fine with his play on the ball. If we start playing like a team, which comes down to coaching, he'll only improve, too, because he admittedly hasn't been at his best, but it's no surprise because most good players we sign don't replicate their prior form due to our poor tactics/coaching.

 

[JawZ]

He's so damn slow, whether it's picking a pass, or moving the ball up the pitch. And with Lindelof keeps on passing it back to him to launch it forward gives the opponent ample time to get back and park the bus on us. He needs to improve.

 

[He'sRaldo]

The way I see it, there are players who try to take responsibility on the ball and progress the play, and players who love a sideways and backwards pass back to where it came from.

Players like Maguire and Pogba are the former but a lot of the time playing for us, they don't have forward options, hence they're seen as arsing about with the ball. I'd rather they didn't change and become sideways and backwards passers, but of course, they also have to know when to make simple passes which can also increase the urgency and tempo.

 

[Champ]

Blind had the same problem. It's no coincidence. Our movement is terrible.

Overall, I'm fine with his play on the ball. If we start playing like a team, which comes down to coaching, he'll only improve, too, because he admittedly hasn't been at his best, but it's no surprise because most good players we sign don't replicate their prior form due to our poor tactics/coaching.

Agree with this,
Maguire and Pogba have been coached to not just keep the ball, but use it in a positive attacking manner, unfortunately for us we have a midfield which is industrious at best and an attacking trio with limited movement.
Blind was exceptional on the ball for us but suffered a similar fate,

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

He and Luke Shaw take way too long on the ball. It's infuriating. They both dwell on the ball for minutes just to make a sideways pass. The movement definitely isn't there but they should know by now what they are doing isn't helping either.

 

[Kostur]

Somebody told him he's good at playing the ball and he believed it. He's the victim here obviously.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Clearly our coaching staff and Ole don't think this is a problem.

I'll say though despite Maguire being the biggest culprit, a lot of our players tend to 'ballhog' on the ball before releasing it. I'd argue it's a systematic issue at times.

We move the ball far too slowly. It's been a problem for years.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Who is he exactly meant to pass too? Have none of you seen the laughable movement ahead of him? He's clearly been given the instruction to play like he does.

Agreed, he's carrying the ball out as it looks likes he has been told to do but the movement ahead of him is absolutely woeful. Ergo, he ends up needing to hold the ball and play a simple pass after a while because there is nothing in front of him to hit. I actually think he will be better with Pogba back in the side.

 

[12OunceEpilogue]

He must think it's his job to lead by example and take responsibly for starting our attacks and to be fair it's not as if his teammates were giving him a variety of great passing options. I must agree though, it was very annoying today to see him wasting time on the ball when we needed goals.

 

[Oldyella]

Yeah, but surely now we have our ball playing CBs our attack has been revolutionised? Or maybe it was never their fault to begin with..

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Not to burst the bubble of delusion here, but he is exactly the same for England. It was a big problem for them in the World Cup because him and Stones were both at it.

Leicester have also mysteriously become much more effective at moving the ball from defence to attack since we signed Maguire.

Exactly - he has never been that good for England... more often then not he's spectacularly average or spectacularly crap.

Yesterday was just another level of crap from Maguire though.... and you can't even argue that the passes aren't there or are too difficult because he routinely messed up pretty simple 5/10 yard passes.

Just because he likes to have a Phil Jones-esq dribble and has a semi decent touch people reckon he's some feckin' maestro on the ball and he himself has seemingly bought into it.

This, coupled with the fact that he routinely does dumb shit when actually defending leaves me wondering what the actual feck we bought... I'd be disappointed with him if we had spent £30m on him, let alone £80... £80 million for a player who is a bit better on the ball then Chris Smalling, but probably not as good at defending. Great.

And don't get me started on his attacking prowess from our corners.... all the attacking threat of a Gerbil.

 

[Fox_Chrys]

Maguire for us his benefits were.

Could pick out a pass.
Confident running forwards with ball.
Good header off the ball, defending and on our corners.

However he wasnt known for quick passing movements, he would often sit on the ball before passing or running with it.
He also was prone to doing rash clearances if closed down.

 

[el3mel]

Whenever Maguire gets the ball and run aimlessly past the midfield, I just can't picture anyone else bar Phill Jones. He's doing exactly like him.

 

[Machine Elements]

I hope we cut our losses at the end of the season with this guy similarly we did with Di Maria or Lukaku. But it doesn't seem realistic. At least with Di Maria and Lukaku, there was a willing buyer and the players wanted to go. We recouped most of the money we paid for these players. On the other hand, if we tried to sell Maguire now, I don't think anyone will pay anywhere near the fee we paid for him. Absolutely shocking transfer business and loaning your best CB out for peanuts makes it even worse.

 

[the chameleon]

I think we will have to go with him. A bit much the transfer fee. We could have got so many other options. But after paying £85m we have no choice. Woodward the bozo doesn't seem to learn.

The big issue is that we don't use someone who makes up for his lack of pace. It's ridiculous that we have two defenders that are slow slugs. That part is on Ole.

 

[Bobski]

Holding the ball for long periods before releasing it is not something new with Maguire. At Leicester it is something he was praised for, his comfort and composure on the ball. What does a ball playing CB really mean to people who watch the game. For me it is quick and efficient transference of the ball to those more likely to create something, composed clearances and always providing a reliable out ball for a team-mate under pressure. Holding the ball for long periods and the type of forward bursts that made Maguire so popular have rarely been something that top teams have wanted in their CB's. Rio was superb on the ball, could have done a lot more if he was more self indulgent but kept it simple.

Maguire's style of ball playing is much less useful than it was fun to watch. Those who say he has been limited at Utd should consider that he has been asked to adapt and play a more disciplined style. All that wandering forward out of position didn't exactly make Leicester better defensively.

 

[redshaw]

Some of it is down to frustration of sod all happening ahead of him but there's nothing on for him either when he tries. Part of his game though but we need to know when to pick up and carry verses passing quick to say Pogba.

 

[Alabaster Codify7]

I feel like he has his wings clipped since he came here. He was way more adventurous, marauding even for Leicester and England.

Yeah, he has. He looks worse than he did at Leicester, for sure. Something is so rotten on our training pitch. Nobody with a brain expected VVD, but nobody expected what we've got so far - a vague upgrade on our other options, for 80m.