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Where in my post was I defending Maguire?This is a load of nonsense, and it’s funny seeing people using any bad game Varane has to try and defend Maguire when Maguire has been much worse. Varane playing poorly doesn’t vindicate Maguire who’s been shocking all season.
Maguire is a leader at the back. If he was at his best both Varane and Lindelof would look much better. Obviously he’s been nowhere near his best for ages.I like Varane, but none of our CBs show any sort of leadership. We badly need a leader at the back.
Varane was on a decline ever since this happened. This is why RM did not want to pay him what he wanted and sold him.First, these are past achievements, now we're dealing with a 29 years old player who's most probably going to decline rather than improve from here.
Second, he didn't achieve these alone. He was playing in a team full of Galacticos, and more importantly, as said above, he had a top class leader playing alongside him in Ramos.
Varane is a good defender but he has been doing these kind of mistakes his entire career. He was lucky to have Ramos playing with him, full stop. He needs someone to continuously school him to avoid such concentration issues.
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No question. The backline next season is him, 2 new signings and whoever Ten Hag likes best from the current squad, I think, which I'm too mad to guess who that is.They showed a stat at the start of the game yesterday which said we'd conceded 0.9 goals per game with him and 2 without him. He hasn't been particularly great but he's the least useless (when fit)
That’s the point, it’s a stupid comparison. The reason Maguire receives more vitriol is because he’s been much worse. Maguire’s made costly errors game after game, Varane hasn’t. You also said Varane has been awful in every match he’s played which I’m sure you know is nonsense.Where in my post was I defending Maguire?
Varane has been a major disappointment this season, there's no getting away from it, yet has managed to escape the level of vitriol, bile and pathetic jibes from fans because he is Varane.
When people throw around stats like this they need to be a bit careful. Are the stats like that because he didn’t play? Or because he has been injured and missed most big games? He didn’t play 2x Liverpool or 2x City as example. Or another reason?They showed a stat at the start of the game yesterday which said we'd conceded 0.9 goals per game with him and 2 without him. He hasn't been particularly great but he's the least useless (when fit)
He hasn't shown any real leadership skills in terms of commanding the backline throughout his entire career here — even during his best spell when he was our best defender by some margin. Our communication at the back had been non-existent, we've been constantly failing to play an offside trap and the less said about our defensive shape in transition, the better.Maguire is a leader at the back. If he was at his best both Varane and Lindelof would look much better. Obviously he’s been nowhere near his best for ages.
I still think he's very fast. He's not getting beaten for pace. The main issues with him have been mistakes like in the video. Taking too long on the ball and getting dispossessed. Playing a terrible pass that gets intercepted. Misjudging a ball in the air that he should easily deal with. It's the unforced errors. Concentration issues. These are the kind of things I didn't think we'd see much at all from him. We see it too often. It's very worrying.Varane was on a decline ever since this happened. This is why RM did not want to pay him what he wanted and sold him.
The other thing is Varane need a proper leader to play alongside him. Everytime Militao and Varane had to partner when Ramos was injured our defense was shaky.
Varane was a beast from the age 19-26. After this he started to decline. Very weird as defender usually play at high level even at 35-36. I think a lot of his game was based on his pace. He was super fast. Maybe not anymore.
I hope he finds better form next season. However I am a little big worried if he can play ETH football. He likes to play the ball from the back and Varane is not very good with his feet. You need a better footballer-defender next to him.
The problem I have with the first paragraph is people only use that excuse for the players that they like. If Maguire plays and does what Varane did yesterday, nobody gives any excuses for him. Every player needs to be held to the same standard.He wasn’t good yesterday but it must be hopeless to play defender in a team with our midfield. They cannot play their way out and we had wave after wave of attack, they don’t help in defence, and they don’t offer anything going forward. Again he was poor but I don’t see how he could be successful in a match like this.
When people throw around stats like this they need to be a bit careful. Are the stats like that because he didn’t play? Or because he has been injured and missed most big games? He didn’t play 2x Liverpool or 2x City as example. Or another reason?
It’s easy to make connections but harder to verify them statistically. “We signed Varane and had our worst season in ages”, etc.
Somewhat agree with you. I dont think its about decline. He has had mistakes in him his whole career, can sometime be bullied. Mentally, technically he usually does everything right, he is obviously a quality defender, but I always thought a little overhyped in terms of one of the best, Ramos bailed him out of trouble very often. The fanfare when he arrived here was OTT I thought, as good as the suit was.Ya know... For years people were on here mentioning him as the best, or among the best CBs in the world. But I watched him for Madrid and he regularly made mistakes with his defending. He was young and fast and showed an ability to play a long pass out of the back. But over the years he had some injuries as well as the inconsistancy and unreliability. My concern before we signed him was that I knew he made plenty of mistakes but I honestly didnt expect him to be as bad as he has been this season between the mistakes. I thought he would be our best CB with the occasional costly mistake. But instead he's been average (and none of our CBs have been any good) and made mistakes that would have seen Chris Smalling effigies burned by caf posters. His concentration is appalling and the amount of times he makes awkward contact with a clearance putting us at risk is poor.
I hope he does better next season but we need to be prepared for him not being good enough for the top teams anymore. Because he could do better than this season and I fully expect that he will, but still not be more than a 7/10 with need for improvement and he still might not be available for long periods with his fitness even if hes back to his best.
I kind of agree. The team perform at a very low level atm but that should not be an excuse for individual players’ performances. They are part of the team and in a way it is even worse for a player like Varane who was brought in to improve the defence but we ended up with a much worse result than last year.The problem I have with the first paragraph is people only use that excuse for the players that they like. If Maguire plays and does what Varane did yesterday, nobody gives any excuses for him. Every player needs to be held to the same standard.
Varane missed almost every big game that we got thrashed in. I highly doubt it makes much difference if he's there. I do think that stats are important, but the fact that he missed almost all of our big games, it's hard for me to take much from them. He played in far more of the 'easier' games.
Gvardiol has a lot of potential for sure with his age, but he too is making plenty of mistakes defensively. Far more acceptable for a youngster but I dont think having 2 defenders making individual errors will fix our defensive problemsSomewhat agree with you. I dont think its about decline. He has had mistakes in him his whole career, can sometime be bullied. Mentally, technically he usually does everything right, he is obviously a quality defender, but I always thought a little overhyped in terms of one of the best, Ramos bailed him out of trouble very often. The fanfare when he arrived here was OTT I thought, as good as the suit was.
On the other side of the coin, after watchign his documentary on netflix, I actually expected a fair amount more from him. He does have leadership in him, leading by example and the way he trains. He is a top defender and I disagree with people saying about him declining. Its not like he is gettign beaten for pace or the physical side of the game, its more the odd lapse. But personally think on here often Ramos has been very under rated, Varane the other way.
There sinply hasnt been a good centre back partnership since Rio and Vidic, we have had Bruce and Pallister and JOhnsen Stam, but nothing for several years and I dont see a partnership between any of the current lot. I think we need a physical beast like player signed, Bailly would have been the best partner if he could have stayed fit and not made monumental errors in his appearances or over zealous challenges. Romero would hav ebeen perfect, actually wanted him when we did sign Varane.
I am not sure Terrier is the right partner for what we have. I think the perfect player alongside Varane would be Gvardiol for his ability to run with the ball and phsyicality but he would be too expensive this summer for our rebuild
Yeah, I always thought he was good, not great but had the ability to be great. I’m not that surprised by his performances so far.Ya know... For years people were on here mentioning him as the best, or among the best CBs in the world. But I watched him for Madrid and he regularly made mistakes with his defending. He was young and fast and showed an ability to play a long pass out of the back. But over the years he had some injuries as well as the inconsistancy and unreliability. My concern before we signed him was that I knew he made plenty of mistakes but I honestly didnt expect him to be as bad as he has been this season between the mistakes. I thought he would be our best CB with the occasional costly mistake. But instead he's been average (and none of our CBs have been any good) and made mistakes that would have seen Chris Smalling effigies burned by caf posters. His concentration is appalling and the amount of times he makes awkward contact with a clearance putting us at risk is poor.
I hope he does better next season but we need to be prepared for him not being good enough for the top teams anymore. Because he could do better than this season and I fully expect that he will, but still not be more than a 7/10 with need for improvement and he still might not be available for long periods with his fitness even if hes back to his best.
Ya know... For years people were on here mentioning him as the best, or among the best CBs in the world. But I watched him for Madrid and he regularly made mistakes with his defending. He was young and fast and showed an ability to play a long pass out of the back. But over the years he had some injuries as well as the inconsistancy and unreliability. My concern before we signed him was that I knew he made plenty of mistakes but I honestly didnt expect him to be as bad as he has been this season between the mistakes. I thought he would be our best CB with the occasional costly mistake. But instead he's been average (and none of our CBs have been any good) and made mistakes that would have seen Chris Smalling effigies burned by caf posters. His concentration is appalling and the amount of times he makes awkward contact with a clearance putting us at risk is poor.
I hope he does better next season but we need to be prepared for him not being good enough for the top teams anymore. Because he could do better than this season and I fully expect that he will, but still not be more than a 7/10 with need for improvement and he still might not be available for long periods with his fitness even if hes back to his best.
Varane is a very good player but he has flaws that can be easily exposed under the right circumstances, that's what most french followers probably saw with France up until 2016-2018 and it disappeared around the time Kanté was introduced and the fullbacks weren't completely useless. The same is kind of true for Real Madrid where both Varane and Ramos couldn't really handle being left exposed, some defenders can deal with this situation but I don't think that there is one at the minute, we are talking about prime Ferdinand/Nesta/Thuram/Piqué/Chiellini, those players have shown the rare ability to defend in acres of space.I couldn't remember who I thought was overrated by a lot of people a few years ago, it's Varane. For years people have overrated him, giving him a bunch of qualities that he didn't have but somehow when he finally showed something in 2018, a lot of people couldn't see it.
Wasn't this the same opinion on Vidic for his first 6 months at United?Varane has been utter shite - must be the most overrated defender of the last 15 years.
Or he just ain’t all that, which seems far more likely looking at the evidence.Hard to judge him too much. Likes of Rio Terry and even VVD would struggle with this band of delinquents around them.
Varane is a good player that simply came to us at a very poor time for the club. Sometimes these things are just not meant to be.
True, but at the same time it is reasonable to have the expectation that the highest paid defender in the PL would bring some kind of improvement.Hard to judge him too much. Likes of Rio Terry and even VVD would struggle with this band of delinquents around them.
Varane is a good player that simply came to us at a very poor time for the club. Sometimes these things are just not meant to be.
Agree. Don't understand some comments in this thread. He's been pretty good when he's played, a few mistakes but we're definitely more solid at the back when he starts, as per the stats. In a season when the whole team is clearly dysfunctional, he's done well. The only issue I have is how many injuries he picks up.He's clearly a very good defender, starter for Real and France, but people expect defenders to be able to cover every inch of grass and mark about 5 players when the standard of attackers in the PL has never been higher. There's a reason why Liverpool always play Fabinho as a DM, you need the cover of the extra man
Couldn't agree more. I find it very hard to judge how good our defenders actually are given the lack of cover the midfield and wing backs provide.He's clearly a very good defender, starter for Real and France, but people expect defenders to be able to cover every inch of grass and mark about 5 players when the standard of attackers in the PL has never been higher. There's a reason why Liverpool always play Fabinho as a DM, you need the cover of the extra man
What an illustrious list. Top class CBs are definitely a rarity nowadays.Tweet
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