Maguire's Redemption | One-year option triggered

He always shined in 3 defenders systems and it's not weird that he is having resurgence in Amorims system. So hopefully he'll continue on this path with no famouse brainfarts he sometimes has.
 
Annoying we probably could have got many more years of similar performances from him had we copped a system that suited him. Trust this club to spend big on him and try make him work in a back four high line for years.
Although they do have to take their share of criticism, we've done a lot of our players dirty trying to shoehorn them into a role they're not suited for over the past decade or so.

Several supposed top managers have been guilty of this. Pretty infuriating when you think about it.
 
Hes always been a good defender. He was left super exposed under ETH and this is his downfall, unfortuntely. Hes not a recovery defender.

Under Amorim hes got runners next to him who will do the chasing and he gets to command the box and get physical with number 9's. This is role he is suited for. He is bossing it lately and you can see he is enjoying it again. Took a lot of criticism under ETH and he has rightly, remained professional, and earned his spot back. Long may it continue.
 
Turns out he's better suited to a back 3 than a 2 with Greta Thunberg next to him and no midfield ahead of him.
 
Looks more of a leader than he ever did when he was captain. Loved his passion after the penalty decision.
 
Commanding performance from him today. Don't think he got beaten in the air once.
 
I love how the Maguire hatred has now been simplified down to basically “United fans booed him!”

When a more accurate timeline is…

Maguire’s form for club deteriorated.
But he was still picked for England.
Which caused England fans to boo him at the time, which made no fecking sense.
Then pundits and ex-pros were doing specials on how he shouldn’t be in the England team.
He was then jeered in away grounds every time he had a touch.

Sure in between all of that he lost the captains armband and United fans gave him a good amount of abuse as well.

But the media and pundits completely removing themselves from any wrong doing whenever a player turns their form around always gives me a laugh.
 
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Never knew he had it in him to go on a mad one about a wrong decision, fair play to the fella today.
 
He's been good for a while, he had some shaky periods after he joined but he's been mainly consistent. Doesn't kick up a fuss when benched either and is a great example for the younger players, no brianer to keep him around.
 
I Owe him an apology. He was majestic today. True passion.

Hope he retires with us. Deserves it after all the mocking from us fans.
 
Think the only time he got booed by our fans was idiots on the US Tour a few years back, which was widely slated by most with sense.
It was the Australian tour where it happened. I know because I was in the ground at the time, face palming at the stupidity of the 'fans'. Plenty of us tried to drown it out with cheers as well, but either way there was an obviously different atmosphere every time Maguire got on the ball. The majority of the people booing were just doing it for the memes and were laughing about it, but that almost made it worse.

Perhaps it happened in the US the following season as well? Not sure.
 
The guy was an international laughing stock 2 years ago. Remember the politicians in Ghana I think it was making fun of him in parliament?

I'm so glad he's turned it around. Imagine if Antony did the same and started banging in 20 goals a season.
 
I love how the Maguire hatred has now been simplified down to basically “United fans booed him!”

When a more accurate timeline is…

Maguire’s form for club deteriorated.
But he was still picked for England.
Which caused England fans to boo him at the time, which made no fecking sense.
Then pundits and ex-pros were doing specials on how he shouldn’t be in the England team.
He was then jeered in away grounds every time he had a touch.

Sure in between all of that he lost the captains armband and United fans gave him a good amount of abuse as well.

But the media and pundits completely removing themselves from any wrong doing whenever a player turns their form around always gives me a laugh.

His history is tainted by that poor dip in form (somewhat exacerbated by the Greece debacle) and consistently being picked by Southgate for England despite being nowhere near in form enough for club

The media loved his apparent downfall, the England fans used every angle possible to abuse him, made worse by the fact he played for us - now it's all about how United fans nearly missed out on wanting him out of the club because "look at him now"
 
He was incredible against Arsenal and loved his response after the terrible penalty call. That and the Bayinder penalty save seemed to galvanize the team.

So many of us a few years ago thought he was done at United but he has put his head down and fought for his place. He should be offered a new deal.
 
I Owe him an apology. He was majestic today. True passion.

Hope he retires with us. Deserves it after all the mocking from us fans.
This I don't understand, when he was criticised it was because he was appalling, now he is playing very well that doesn't change the past, don't think we need to apologise for being honest we just need to be consistent and praise the turnaround in his form.
 
Did he go off injured, or was it just to do with him being ill prior to the game?

Great effort from him recently - seems to bring composure to the back line.
 
I'm glad he has shown the guts to stay and fight for his place. It's also a happy coincidence for him that Amorim's three central defender structure mitigates some of the weaknesses in his game. I think those weaknesses are still there - slow to turn and taking too many touches, but he has stopped the madcap lunges forward that he was doing out of desperation when his form was getting worse.

He is a good reader of potential threats but he was over-reacting to them as part of a 2 man central defence and left his partner exposed when he then didn't win the ball. He also would then take 5 touches to move the ball away and so he was relentlessly pressed as a weakness in our back line with the ball.

Thankfully as part of this system he seems to be trusting his colleagues to deal with things and not over-committing forward, Whether it's coaching or system or adding in deLigt I don't know, but he seems less exposed. He still has a tendency to over-anticipate runs and break a defensive line as he tries to get ahead of faster attackers...meaning he is often playing someone else onside.

I think while Amorim is still playing defensive players as wing backs this is less of an issue as they are more likely to be nearby and offer support / pace to recover against a wide threat.

Once Amorim gets bolder and plays attackers in those wide positions then I can see Maguire struggling again, but fair play to the lad for sticking at it and working hard. He has at least earned a place in the squad and the additional year on his contract is probably the best timescale for the club to plan his replacement.
 
Although they do have to take their share of criticism, we've done a lot of our players dirty trying to shoehorn them into a role they're not suited for over the past decade or so.

Several supposed top managers have been guilty of this. Pretty infuriating when you think about it.
Must also be infuriating that a supposed clown of a manager worked this out a few years back whilst bringing waistcoats back in fashion!
 
No redemption there. He is the same player as he was when we signed him.
Very, very useful in defensive setup in deep defence. In attacking team which play with high defence he is calamity. Just too slow and immobile.
 
How was he terrible today? He was one of the better player on the pitch. Mazraoui and Onana lost us the game.
 
How was he terrible today? He was one of the better player on the pitch. Mazraoui and Onana lost us the game.
Look at huge gaps in defence when he plays. Brighton players were just storming around area where he should be.
 
Weird bump. Comfortably the best of the back 5 today.
Comfortably? Keeping Mitoma on side for first goal aside, he was in no man't land whole game. Always late to cover, always late to close.
Central defender in defence 3 is the one who covers gaps. He covered nothing.

He would be great addition to Palace or West Ham but he should not be a part of our team next season. He is holding us back.
 
Yeah, thank god the rest of the team is in a state where we can afford to pay our decent back up CB 190k per week.

Keeping Maguire as back up is likely still cheaper than having to buy a new back up (we need a back up if Evans, Lindelof and Maguire all leave) and pay that back up also around 100k a week + transfer/sign on fee.
 
Comfortably? Keeping Mitoma on side for first goal aside, he was in no man't land whole game. Always late to cover, always late to close.
Central defender in defence 3 is the one who covers gaps. He covered nothing.

He would be great addition to Palace or West Ham but he should not be a part of our team next season. He is holding us back.
The one where De Ligt went awol?

The wide centre backs are a far bigger issue 'for next season' than Maguire. De Ligt, Yoro and Martinez for different reasons aren't suited to it.
 
Keeping Maguire as back up is likely still cheaper than having to buy a new back up (we need a back up if Evans, Lindelof and Maguire all leave) and pay that back up also around 100k a week + transfer/sign on fee.
Only if you ignore opportunity costs in my eyes. I'd see your point if we would be playing for multiple titles and therefor have a necessity to have a big competitive squad. But thats not the case. First priority has to be the first team. And seeing how Mazraoui isn't going to work as WB, he might as well can play as one of the CBs. Seeing how well Azpilicueta worked there, it might even be a good idea to test that. I am pretty sure, we'll be trying to buy a CB in the summer anyway. Extending Maguire is just the same old United pattern "rather extend than facing a difficult situation right now".
 
Only if you ignore opportunity costs in my eyes. I'd see your point if we would be playing for multiple titles and therefor have a necessity to have a big competitive squad. But thats not the case. First priority has to be the first team. And seeing how Mazraoui isn't going to work as WB, he might as well can play as one of the CBs. Seeing how well Azpilicueta worked there, it might even be a good idea to test that. I am pretty sure, we'll be trying to buy a CB in the summer anyway. Extending Maguire is just the same old United pattern "rather extend than facing a difficult situation right now".

I feel Maguire's extension is probably as much 'facing the difficult situation' that you can without shooting yourself in the face. Our past issues with finances and contracts means extending or not was always going to be a problem. Hopefully the extension means we can get a fee out of him in the summer. If not, then considering our other defensive options left, having a senior player with his aerial qualities is what is it, a compromise.

Realistically you looking to offload Antony, Casemiro, Lindelof, Evans, Eriksen, Malacia and hope you may get a fee out of Rashford, Garnacho, Dalot, Martinez, Bruno, Hojlund, Zirkzee etc? Fat chance it'll work out in a way we will then recruit efficiently and inexpensively. Extending Maguire was probably a straight forward choice when you consider all these other issues.
 
Let's leave Harry display today aside

At one point United must stop and think who has been the Main REPRESENTATIVES for each line to build the rest of the team around them during these last years: De Gea, Maguire (leader of defense), Fred (some sort of bulldog), Bruno (playmaker), Rashford (forward goalscorer) and in between tried to have Casemiro as polivalent DM, Varane as defensive leader and Cris as the glorius comeback.
These last three clear champs, excellent players that were bought or recovered lacked timing and some bad luck regarding injuries.
Yet the main list above these proven trio, shows one thing, almost none of the players to build around had a winner past, almost all of them lacking composure and failing to be trully clever/ intelligent players.
Indeed almost all of them comitted, with some from great to extraordinary atribute within their traits, yet hardly names in my view (even without mondays paper) that instantly I would thougth when bought, less when they started their journey, sthg in the line of: "I'm building/betting as close as a I can a proven, winning squad around these lads".

Later when these mostly quality players have to deal with constant managers rotation and these managers mostly being bets, with the addition of some dubious transfers and other bets like the three veterans not working, everything becames harder. For the players itself bought/pushed to be the core and to the newcomers.



Back to the game, Harry didn't have a good game, yet the same issues rise again that does not help any player defending in this team:

1. Upfront very little is produced, no real pressing, no real danger created,
2. The middle is composed by players that in the offensive role, or defensive one, feel isolated, not cohesive.
3. The defense has to deal with the lack of game on every facet in front of them.
4. The new leader of the net, shares the same lack of game in dead ball situations. lacking command in the area and when he has a blooper, is also a De Gea/Rulli/Donarumma sort of monumental blooper

In the mix there is a new manager that tries to play hardball, yet looks also a bit too stubborn to deal with the huge gaps his choices are also creating till the players adapt, till the bad vibe gives this team a break and till the players understand what he wants.
 
wait what? Based on today, Maguire is the one people trying to blame out of all the others? He was comfortably the best of the defenders and one of the better players today, and pretty much the only player from the back taking responsibility to play it forward (and you might even clump Mainoo and Ugarte from the midfield here based on today).
 
I feel Maguire's extension is probably as much 'facing the difficult situation' that you can without shooting yourself in the face. Our past issues with finances and contracts means extending or not was always going to be a problem. Hopefully the extension means we can get a fee out of him in the summer. If not, then considering our other defensive options left, having a senior player with his aerial qualities is what is it, a compromise.
I agree. I also think that both options weren't great and rather a choice between two subpar options than between a good and a bad one. I guess, the thing that is triggering me is that so many posters in here acted as if there was no alternative at all. But yeah, if the extention has been done to get a fee, than I will be happy to admit my mistake in this regard.
Realistically you looking to offload Antony, Casemiro, Lindelof, Evans, Eriksen, Malacia and hope you may get a fee out of Rashford, Garnacho, Dalot, Martinez, Bruno, Hojlund, Zirkzee etc? Fat chance it'll work out in a way we will then recruit efficiently and inexpensively. Extending Maguire was probably a straight forward choice when you consider all these other issues.
Yes, I don't see it like that but I can see the rationale behind it. I guess, my approach would be more crass(?), I would have offloaded him long ago and thats why I consider this an "hanging thread" that needs to cut finally. I think, the mindset of "who would be a good player to have around?" isn't forceful enough for what we have to do (in my opinion).