The Improvement of Harry Maguire

[ReallyUSA]

He oozes class and plays his way.

I think Maguire and Lindelof are fine together.

In bailly Maguire and Lindelof we have £145 million of centreback + Tuanzebe and Mengi I think we aren’t in a bad place there.

We need to sort out attack out in all honesty and Grealish and Haaland go a long way to making us real challengers next season.

They do not play well together. They are too slow which forces our CB's to not go forward which in turn leaves Bruno to create by himself. Then we either depend on him having a 7 or 8 game or for one our forwards to have a moment of brilliance. That's no way to play football.

 

[red4ever 79]

They do not play well together. They are too slow which forces our CB's to not go forward which in turn leaves Bruno to create by himself. Then we either depend on him having a 7 or 8 game or for one our forwards to have a moment of brilliance. That's no way to play football.

Also forces Ole to play two holding midfielders in front of them to compensate for their weakness, which then hinders us going forwards.

 

[shamans]

He hasn't improved he's always been good but you knee jerkers just bought into the twitter compilations of his "slips"

 

[tomaldinho1]

I don't really get this thread - he arrived and has had some patchy periods, the odd disaster game, but generally been good. We're all aware Leicester fleeced us for £80m but that's not on Maguire. He's a top CB but never world class and I'm fine with that, he's not improved or regressed (apart from his awful offensive heading from corners), he's just a solid, injury immune CB.

 

[A-man]

To be fair it wasn't a planned thing. AWB was supposed to come back into his usual position of being the last defender, but Bruno and the other player (can't remember who it was) took a quick corner and passed it to AWB before he could drop. AWB did the right thing at first by passing it forward again, but instead of then continuing back to his normal position he decided to charge forward and continue being involved in that attack. Matic also did the right thing at first by seeing the danger and dropping back to cover, but then he wandered out wide to act as an option to pass to and left Ba all by himself in miles of space.

Stupid goal to concede of course, but it was more through individual errors rather than anything deliberately done.

I missed that part and then I agree, more stupid individually than poor instructions. It was also Tuanzebes second game in a year if I remember correctly, and that always opens up for misunderstandings when it comes to organisation.

Shouldn’t only blame the defence, also not good to take a risk with a short corner that stopped our “corner defender” from taking his position.

 

[Cassidy]

If you look at his quote he doesn't claim he used to play a high line. Doesn't mention his own performance at all in fact. You've put words in his mouth there and claimed it's silly of me to disagree with him.

He's just singling out Maguire for a weak point the vast majority of CB's struggle with.

Do I trust Maguire one on one around the halfway line? Nope. Just like I wouldn't trust 99% of the Premier League CB's in the same position.

I'd be more focussed on the goalkeeper, hoping he's ready to come out and play sweeper in that scenario.

I've listened to him plenty (he hasn't only spoken about it once) and he has stated that he played high up the pitch and trusted himself to defend one on one.

 

[eire-red]

It's not fair to throw about his price tag when evaluating him, but in fairness when you think Lindelof and Bailly cost 60m combined or whatever, then Maguire looks like a solid investment.

He's generally our most consistent performer, and has been integral to all of our good defensive displays recently, and hardly misses a game. When you consider he's probably played more minutes at the club than Bailly, it's truly astonishing how much football he has played.

 

[The Brown Bull]

Maguire is a good, honest to God, Premiership centre back.
But in my opinion he's not good enough to be Manchester United's no 1 centre back and captain. Not nearly good enough in fact.

 

[copen1945]

He has become the heart of one of the best defense in the league. He might justify his transfer fee, which wasn't his fault.

 

[Stacks]

He has become the heart of one of the best defense in the league. He might justify his transfer fee, which wasn't his fault.

one of the best defences in the league? The only times are our defence is secure is if a team plays for a draw and does not try to attack us. I have noticed we are getting drab draws and 1-0 wins and are scoring less. Our defence does not afford us the freedom to properly attack.

 

[RashyForPM]

one of the best defences in the league? The only times are our defence is secure is if a team plays for a draw and does not try to attack us. I have noticed we are getting drab draws and 1-0 wins and are scoring less. Our defence does not afford us the freedom to properly attack.

We conceded 11 in our first 3 games after having no pre-season. After that, we conceded 21 in 26 PL games. That’s 0.8 per game, a good record, and for even more context, we had the most clean sheets across Europe in all competitions last season.

I’ve said so many times, our big problem isn’t defence, although obviously Lindelof can be upgraded on. It’s McFred in midfield when Pogba is out. They give us some extra defensive stability at the cost of so much attacking prowess. Our major need this window is to get a real DM to partner Pogba, and keep Paul on top of that of course.

 

[Lennon7]

He’s a good centre back for a team that’s aiming to break into the top 4 every now and then like Arsenal, Leicester, Everton but imo we can’t be settling for players like Maguire as our ‘best’ centre back if we’re wanting to win the league and kick on in the champions league.

He’d be a good option perhaps alongside a truly world class centre back, same for Lindelof, but together? We can do better if we want to be ambitious.

 

[OrcaFat]

He is excellent. As long as he is in decent form, I wouldn’t swap him for pretty much anyone. Sure he’s not the absolute best but he’s an absolute beast and my favourite CB in the world.

Shame for those who don’t rate him because he’s first on the team sheet and will be for 5 more years. Posters who want him dropped or sold give me quite a bit of amusement.

 

[Crashoutcassius]

Great tonight. Few terrific passes.

 

[copen1945]

one of the best defences in the league? The only times are our defence is secure is if a team plays for a draw and does not try to attack us. I have noticed we are getting drab draws and 1-0 wins and are scoring less. Our defence does not afford us the freedom to properly attack.

City and Chelsea have allowed fewer goals, but these two defend by having possessions. United actually defend with defensive players. Maguire especially has become a dependable and a trusted player in this tactic, as evidenced in the AC Milan game. He will very well lift the first trophy for Solskjaer.

 

[Leftback99]

He’s a good centre back for a team that’s aiming to break into the top 4 every now and then like Arsenal, Leicester, Everton but imo we can’t be settling for players like Maguire as our ‘best’ centre back if we’re wanting to win the league and kick on in the champions league.

He’d be a good option perhaps alongside a truly world class centre back, same for Lindelof, but together? We can do better if we want to be ambitious.

Like who?

 

[Stacks]

City and Chelsea have allowed fewer goals, but these two defend by having possessions. United actually defend with defensive players. Maguire especially has become a dependable and a trusted player in this tactic, as evidenced in the AC Milan game. He will very well lift the first trophy for Solskjaer.

United are top 5 possession in the league so we also have more of the ball than opp

 

[Bilbo]

We have 13 clean sheets in our last 20 matches

 

[Macern]

He's probably the most underrated player in our squad. I've always rated him, but get the feeling people don't like him because he doesn't exactly look like a footballer.

He's so unique in the way he combines incredible aerial strength with very good dribbling and passing. Defensively he wins almost everything in the air and positions himself very well. He leads the defense as well. Going forward he is always looking to play Shaw or any other players through and his long balls are very accurate. At times he'll even go forward to create an overload and he's surprisingly good in the attack.

Worth the price if you ask me. One of the most underrated footballers around.

 

[Lennon7]

Like who?

Are you asking which centre backs in world football are better than Harry Maguire or Victor Lindelof?

 

[bond19821982]

Problem is we can't keep on putting Fred and McT in front of the defense. At some point , we will have to upgrade them with a deep playmaker. Means, we need to upgrade one of our centre backs .

 

[PeteManic]

He is the most average CB you will see at top level football.

 

[Poborsky's hair]

He's probably the most underrated player in our squad. I've always rated him, but get the feeling people don't like him because he doesn't exactly look like a footballer.

He's so unique in the way he combines incredible aerial strength with very good dribbling and passing. Defensively he wins almost everything in the air and positions himself very well. He leads the defense as well. Going forward he is always looking to play Shaw or any other players through and his long balls are very accurate. At times he'll even go forward to create an overload and he's surprisingly good in the attack.

Worth the price if you ask me. One of the most underrated footballers around.

It doesn´t matter what you come up with. See the stupid comments without substance under your post. One would think it´s clear to see now but again people will come with some assumptions and stateements like that. Better ignore these people though. Agreed definitely worth the money and once we upgrade certainly "the more average" defender next to him we will see how much good we can be. It´s almost as if it´s one man defense at times. Also for Maguires ball palying ability. He could easily play in midifield with that skillset. Would be an upgrade on McTominay easily. But we can´t experiment and should just enjoy having a top fit CB nomatter how he looks like or how much he cost.

 

[Leftback99]

Are you asking which centre backs in world football are better than Harry Maguire or Victor Lindelof?

I'm asking who we can buy that is significantly better than Maguire yes.

 

[OrcaFat]

He is the most average CB you will see at top level football.

That makes no sense. He is way above average, walks into most teams in this league, probably most teams in Europe. Most teams in the world would be glad to have him. We are glad to have him, made him captain, and he has been integral to the development of our very mean defence. So even if you don’t like him, he is not average.

 

[The holy trinity 68]

He has brain fart moments and his agility is pretty bad but he is definitely in the top 10 CB's in the world and isn't as bad as people make out.

 

[PeteManic]

That makes no sense. He is way above average, walks into most teams in this league, probably most teams in Europe. Most teams in the world would be glad to have him. We are glad to have him, made him captain, and he has been integral to the development of our very mean defence. So even if you don’t like him, he is not average.

Ok, thanks Ole.

 

[Grande]

A brief summary:
He was the best CB at Hull and the best CB at Leicester. He was an English international. Did we pay too much for him? Possibly, but given that we had Lindelöf and four sicknotes and there weren’t too many other available options, I tend to think it was worth it paying over the odds. That’s history, so bringing up that in a thread about Harry Maguire present and future is frankly stupid.

For me, he played okayish but with uncertainty in his first few months here, and then played himself warm and was one of the better CBs in the league in the latter half of the season. He started terribly this season, like everyone, but didn’t pick himself up as quickly as most others. He has been more sloppy and prone to passivities and mindbugs this season than last, that is, until the last month. These last two games he has been at the best I’ve seen him so far. Here’s to that after getting used to United and overcoming The Greek Police Ordeal, this is his level and we’re going to get a lot more joy from him. I had him as our best CB last year, but I think Linddelöf has been our beat CB this season. The best is of course when they max at the same time.

 

[PoTMS]

He's an above average defender. Nothing more, nothing less. Let's not pretend otherwise. I'd rather have him than no centre back at all, obviously, but it's scandalous we paid out as much as we did for him and this notion we wouldn't have got any better value for our money anywhere else needs to die because its just pure bollocks.

 

[alexthelion]

He is the most average CB you will see at top level football.

Who in PL is better? Name them.

 

[GueRed]

Our best centre-back and leader at the back.

He's a very good defender.

Anyone who think he's average or shit know nothing about football and/or just biased as feck

 

[hubbuh]

He's quite clearly not average. He's looking increasingly assured and confident back there which is fantastic to see. Do we need another, more dominant CB to partner him over Lindelof? Maybe. Do we need a DM/CM that can provide enough protection to the defence by himself allowing Pogba and Bruno to push forward and create more? Probably. We most definitely don't need to replace Maguire, though.

 

[RashyForPM]

Who in PL is better? Name them.

I like Maguire and think he’s class, hence why I made this thread, but you don’t have to go that far. Dias and Van Dijk are clearly better than him. No shame at all being the 3rd best CB in the league though. I’d take that any day of the week, especially if we pair him next to someone like Konate or Kounde next season.