And we did good this season didn't we?
Maguire is not good enough to start or be an option for us because the style of football we have to play to accommodate his weaknesses is abysmal. The back ups have to be an extension of the style of the starters.
Makes no sense to have a team built to play a high line, squeeze the pitch, be able to defend one on one and then if there's one injury there, change our entire style.
We were shit, he was our only solid CB. He played next to CBs who were a lot worse and sometimes AWB playing out of position at leftback. Our DM was extremely weak other than Casemiro who had some overall good performances but then he would make mistakes losing the ball or with a poor challenge and ruin them.
VVD wouldnt have been great playing in the middle of that. He'd have been better than Maguire but the point is he was good overall despite poor performances from his CB partners because he was the only solid one this season.
I do understand what you are suggesting, Maguire is not the most mobile CB and on paper ideally yes you'd want more mobile CBs if they are going to be playing high up the pitch. However at some point you are going to be facing a couple of set pieces, you are going to face a spell of pressure from your opposition and thats when Maguire is good. He made a lot of interceptions for a CB taking the ball before opposition front players which is great to stop opponent pressure on the floor and he's strong in the air and clearing the ball out.
On top of that our current team and our team for the last 5 years or more is a counter attacking team. We sit deep with 2 DMs and have 50.4% of the ball including against weaker teams, and less against top half of the table teams. Our attacking players arent that good at pressing. Hojlund is better than our previous strikers and Bruno will get around trying to make challenges but our wingers arent pressing the backline, we arent setting traps to intercept in our opponent's third, we're sitting back which is what 4-2-3-1 is good for because you have 2 deep midfielders who should be able to take care of attacking players dropping between attack and midfield where defenders dont want to confront them as it leaves space in behind them.
So no our CBs arent constantly in a high line, they spend just as much time in their own box defending and thats where we spring our counter attacks from with our fast attackers.
The year before when Lisandro was always fit and playing next to Varane we had 53% of the ball. It was more than this season but still less than you seem to think. 53% would have ranked 7th in the premier league just in front of Aston Villa and Newcastle, but less than City (65.4%), Spurs (62%), Liverpool (61.3%), Brighton (60.2%), Chelsea (59%) and Arsenal (58.4%)
In an ideal world where we have an unlimited budget yes of course you'd get some mobile CBs to cover runs in behind the defence if you want to play on the front foot and press. But we'd also need new wingers and new midfielders who like to do that. Our current ones dont. We also have several worse performing CBs at the club so moving them on and replacing them with better ones is a bigger priority than getting rid of the only CB who didn't look lucky to be at the 8th best premier league club this season.
So when we have £200 million to spend on new wingers and a midfield, or lets be honest with our transfer record it would probably take £400 million, then yes getting rid of Maguire and replacing him with someone who likes a foot race in behind him as well as the front foot defending that Maguire does well intercepting the ball, and is good defending crosses too makes sense. Going to be another expensive player though on top of the other 5 players brought in who also play that way.
