I'd say the only things Maguire has over Mings are his aerial prowess and his long passing technique. Harry's also not a cnut, so there's that too.
Mings reads the game better. The dude actually takes a moment to look at what is happening and where the ball should go. Maguire just makes the safest pass available or goes on a solo adventure into no man's land.
Have you ever seen Maguire:
- make a penetrating through pass?
- hold onto to the ball a tad longer for his teammates to make themselves available?
- Play himself out of a press and not hoof it or pass the ball to someone who hoofs it for him?
- dribble into midfield and actually use the number advantage to progress the ball rather than shoot from 50 yards out or pass it back to Shaw?
I've seen Mings do #2 & #3 enough for me to have a higher opinion of his ability on the ball.
There's countless of compilations of Rio/Blind/Virgil/Dias and whoever else making these plays. Where's Maguire's?
By what metric is Harry good on the ball, other than
looking comfortable and confident having it?
I think the fact that Maguire has a pretty neat long ball in him, but rarely uses it to find a player making a run is very telling.
This idea that Maguire is good on the ball has me very worried that if we replace Lindelof with another CB that's poor on the ball, like Varane, we'll be in deep trouble. De Gea, AWB, Shaw Maguire, Varane, McFred playing themselves out of a press or finding one of our forwards
We'll have the same problems we did last season. Shitting ourselves when pressed and not being able to break down a parked bus
No cat shaming