Huh? He was easily the best CB in the league when they bought him. A lot was made of the price they paid but there were reasons LVG, Poch and Pep all wanted him because everyone could see he was something special.That CB LFC signed was nowhere near world class at that time and his transfer fee caused serious shock waves as a result. Despite how class Van Dijk was at Southampton nobody saw him as a tier 1 CB alongside Ramos, Thiago Silva etc Liverpool just got extremely fortunate how his game went up another level in a manner nobody/very very few people foresaw. Truth of the matter is there`s very very few top top tier CBs at the level of Vidic/Rio/Terry left in this era and your best gamble is either spending on potentially world class CBs ala Saliba/Sarr(the CB Chelsea signed) or making a similar gamble Liverpool made with VVD or us with Maguire hoping you get a gem
Football phases aren’t played in isolation. There are defensive, organisational, transitional, possession and attacking phases of the game. Maguire is an excellent all round player who makes a valuable contribution in all the aforementioned aspects from his position. He’s a much better player than Smalling, including defensively, which is reflected in the fact both City and United pursued him and he cost a world record fee for a defender. Meanwhile, Smalling was sent on loan to a second tier league and then sold on the cheap due to little demand in his services. Why? Because there are so many holes in his game, to the point of actually being a liability in certain phases. His strongest attribute, his stout defensive skill, is competent at best.Maguire for me still isn't good enough. He's got that costly mistake in him and is easily done when isolated. I like him as a player but I think for certain he's not better on the defensive side of the game than Smalling. He's not someone who we can rely on to solidify the defense we will need someone who's better than him to partner with. I think with a very capable individual next to him I reckon the performances will improve.
This statement is very debatable because Maguire is nominated in POTM for November. Both him & Lindelof have worked together fine.Since we bought him we’ve heard that we need to find a suitable partner for Harry Maguire, but the problem is, the guy he’s playing next to right now is actually better than him. Yeah, I said it, Lindelof is better than Maguire.
What a load of sh1t!The latest UWS podcast is quite interesting this week.
Andy Mitten said Jose wanted Maguire but demanded that we don’t pay more than £50m, which Leicester obviously refused.
What a load of sh1t!
Jose paid 35mil for Lindelof just before Leicester paid 17mil for Maguire so we could have got him then for peanuts if Jose wanted him.
No, you’re both probably right. He’d make this up for absolutely no reason. @el3mel and @Bondi77 must be right.Why would any manager in the world demand which money is paid for any signing? It's not their business.
Just some terrible journalism.
Really good post. Maguire's become a bit of a pariah on here, I reckon in large part because people expected a VVD level of impact. Regardless, our defence is patently more solid with him as a mainstay and you can't fault his attitude.Football phases aren’t played in isolation. There are defensive, organisational, transitional, possession and attacking phases of the game. Maguire is an excellent all round player who makes a valuable contribution in all the aforementioned aspects from his position. He’s a much better player than Smalling, including defensively, which is reflected in the fact both City and United pursued him and he cost a world record fee for a defender. Meanwhile, Smalling was sent on loan to a second tier league and then sold on the cheap due to little demand in his services. Why? Because there are so many holes in his game, to the point of actually being a liability in certain phases. His strongest attribute, his stout defensive skill, is competent at best.
Smalling, following Caf tradition, is one of those who gets better and better the less he plays for the team; until such time that he is the answer the every defensive conundrum. Cue a call up to the starting XI, and then within a few weeks an historically consistent shite performance, and he’s once again dropped only for the slow, mythological inflation of his reputation to start from scratch again.
Maguire had a ropey start to the season but is looking back to form again. He’s been largely excellent since he signed, and is a huge upgrade on what we had before. Huge. His injury record is superb, and his leadership skills vital. He definitely cost too much, but show me a footballer who doesn’t these days.
The Smalling comparisons are just laughable at this stage.
Unfortunately we just don’t seem to be able to unearth hidden gems anymore.Our scouting network is simply not doing a good enough job.I find it unacceptable that after signing 3 centre backs in the last 3 years we still seem short in that department...That CB LFC signed was nowhere near world class at that time and his transfer fee caused serious shock waves as a result. Despite how class Van Dijk was at Southampton nobody saw him as a tier 1 CB alongside Ramos, Thiago Silva etc Liverpool just got extremely fortunate how his game went up another level in a manner nobody/very very few people foresaw. Truth of the matter is there`s very very few top top tier CBs at the level of Vidic/Rio/Terry left in this era and your best gamble is either spending on potentially world class CBs ala Saliba/Sarr(the CB Chelsea signed) or making a similar gamble Liverpool made with VVD or us with Maguire hoping you get a gem
I'm just commenting on that "demanded the club don't pay more than 50m for him". This one isn't the manager's business. It's Woodward's to determine how much we should spend on any upcoming signing. Yes I do believe Mourinho wanted a Maguire, but he wouldn't ask the play to not overpay for him! Beside we only really spent money in this window on Fred, why would the manager care that much about spending more money?
Without Maguire we wouldn't have played in the Champions League. Was he overprized ? Yes - but that was one transfer we needed to get right so I would rather we spend £20 million too much and sign a player who improves us.
But I would ask a question to the persons who are most negative towards Maguire. Which defender would you have signed (that was possibly to get) last summer, that would have improved us as much as Maguire ? And I am talking about improving us in that season - not 18-24 months down the line.
maybe because he didn’t think he was worth any more than that? Maybe he was happy to spend £50 of his budget on Maguire but didn’t feel that anything above that was a fair price.I'm just commenting on that "demanded the club don't pay more than 50m for him". This one isn't the manager's business. It's Woodward's to determine how much we should spend on any upcoming signing. Yes I do believe Mourinho wanted a Maguire, but he wouldn't ask the play to not overpay for him! Beside we only really spent money in this window on Fred, why would the manager care that much about spending more money?
But we were really only in a defender comes the end of this market. We were chasing center backs left, right and center, and tried with 4 or 5 choices according to Woodward's brief to BBC. There were no other positions to save the money on. This will make sense if we were signing other players in other positions that needed money, but we didn't ?maybe because he didn’t think he was worth any more than that? Maybe he was happy to spend £50 of his budget on Maguire but didn’t feel that anything above that was a fair price.
maybe he knew that he didn’t have that much of a budget and didn’t want spunk £50 on Maguire because he felt that other departments needed strengthening as a priority.
The same podcast seemed to indicate that there was possible outgoings that might have happened and would have needed money to replace them.
i Don’t think it’s that unbelievable to think a manager says he wants to sign a player but that he doesn’t want to spend more than x amount of his budget on him. In fact, I’d be a bit shocked if this didn’t happen regularly
Maybe he wasn’t about saving money but just knew that £50m+ for Maguire was far too much. Many would argue that it was probably right with hindsight.But we were really only in a defender comes the end of this market. We were chasing center backs left, right and center, and tried with 4 or 5 choices according to Woodward's brief to BBC. There were no other positions to save the money on. This will make sense if we were signing other players in other positions that needed money, but we didn't ?
It's too much but I don't think Mourinho would have really cared about that if he thinks we really needed a defender this summer. I mean we overpaid for Lukaku the previous summer anyway.Maybe he wasn’t about saving money but just knew that £50m+ for Maguire was far too much. Many would argue that it was probably right with hindsight.
