[Regulus Arcturus Black]

I have aye.

To me, Telles should be covering the near post angle on the cross. Lindelof has tracked Abuameyang and has him covered. Maguire has left the guy who scored free on the edge of the box, if held a few yards he cuts out that pass.

You can see on the pic that Telles absolutely doesn’t though, so if Maguire held back (which would be absolutely against defending 101), he’d see that and simply slide a simple as feck cross in to Auba and you’d be going bananas at Maguire for not doing the very basics of defending.
Why are you pretending Lindelöf has him covered when Auba is clearly ball-side and that Telles has covered the near post when he clearly hasn’t?
Just look man. Maguire’s done a lot of poor shit this season, you don’t have to make up scenarios where Lindelöf has a man covered or Telles has a cross covered to have a go at Maguire, there’s plenty of shit to slate him for.

Was class tonight though, so hopefully the shit show is over.

 

[United in sin]

Brilliant tonight. On the front-foot throughout, dominant in the air, passed the ball well, nice and aggressive in his positioning.

I know this is going to annoy some of the clueless trolls on here, but that performance is the definition of 'progressive' defending and Rangnick will have loved what he saw

Rubbish. We were all over the place defensively and have looked much secure with Bailly and Lindelof at the back. Ragnick won't hesitate to drop this fraud if his poor form continues. Surely no amount of PR or board room politics will keep this guy on the pitch while we have a capable manager at the helm.

 

[girish]

H wasn't shit today and was pretty decent at some times. bet game if the season so far for him.

 

[tomaldinho1]

Have you ever played football? How the feck can Telles be covering the front post there or blocking the cross?

You’d absolutely crucify your CB there if he allowed the simplest of crosses to be played into Auba there who is ball-side of Lindelöf. The edge of the box is the midfielders responsibility.

You are right 100%. This is one of those situations where on tv it looks simple but the near side CB categorically has to cover the near post in this situation. It’s on McT/Fred to pick up runners or forwards who drop off.

He was better today - especially his shithousery time wasting but we were opened up too many times still. Easily his best performance of the season though, I actually thought Lindelof did really well.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

I actually thought Lindelof did really well.

Me too, and I almost never say that.

Sometimes we can praise players we don’t rate particularly highly.

 

[12OunceEpilogue]

Good low-key performance, the fact he didn't particularly catch the eye was a huge positive given what has gone before. Did his job well and to some extent proved the likes of me wrong who would have liked to have seen Lindelof-Bailly again.

 

[Champ]

He was superb, although slightly slow on the ball at times.
A good performance, a standard performance for him really.

 

[westmeath]

First time this season that he wasn’t awful. I suppose that’s a start. Bailly must be wondering how he is back on the bench though.

 

[Stadjer]

Best game he had this season!

 

[Morpheus 7]

Good in the air tonight, passing was fecking horrific. Like a rugby player banging it out to the corner of the oppositions box, with nobody there. No bullshit either about him me great or immense. He nearly cost us a penalty, lucky. He is not a United captain, the Ole reign is over.

 

[lex talionis]

Harry has risen from the bottom, but what a bottom it was.

 

[E-mal]

He was still poor, dont know what you guys watched. Almost conceded a penalty and looked slow.
At the moment, Bailly-Lindelof looked more solid.

 

[kouroux]

I still wonder how and when this myth of him being good on the ball started.

 

[Lyng]

we told the doubters that maguire was gonna come back to his best form. it always happens.

tonight harry maguire was inmense

He was decent and very lucky the ref was blind.

 

[Ekeke]

Much better

 

[kouroux]

we told the doubters that maguire was gonna come back to his best form. it always happens.

tonight harry maguire was inmense

His best form

 

[Ekeke]

I still wonder how and when this myth of him being good on the ball started.

England, left of a back 3 and playing passing moves as he joined midfield and had a few runs up the pitch. As with every England tournament, whoever the better players are suddenly become "stars" like with Hargreaves and others before him. That said, he did do well going forward and not so well going backwards that tournament with his pace not allowing him to get back when teams countered and he had joined the attack

 

[Chesterlestreet]

He can’t not go and defend the front post there.

100%. It's one of those cases where, if you just look at the goal from the moment when the pass is released, it appears that he abandons "his" man (Odegaard) in order to double up (with VL) on a player closer to the goal.

In reality, though, Odegaard isn't "his" man. The defender, in that situation, has to assume that whoever is lurking on the edge of the box is being taken care of by someone else.

What people actually want him to do here (if they blame him for the goal - which is absurd) is to - which would be a split second decision - assume a) that Odegaard is definitely the target of the pass and b) that nobody behind him (Maguire) will be able to cover him properly.

 

[passing-wind]

No, he absolutely shouldn’t, it’s his job to get in front and stop that cross to the 6 yard box and an easy tap in. Lindelöf doesn’t have that under control.

Highlights the flaws of Maguire. He doesn't have sound judgement to weigh up danger in a situation. He plays like a robot who can't discern threats in the phases of play so almost sticks to the basis of defending like it's the highway code of driving. He made an error no doubt a better defender positions himself effectively to if not intercept that pass atleast reduce the angle that the pass is misplaced.

 

[KranjskaKlobasa]

He is as prone to lapses of bad judgement as Bailly. What the **** was the thinking wrestling down opponents on the edge of the penalty area.

 

[GueRed]

Better performance.

We need him to be reliable again.

Important player.

 

[passing-wind]

How people can observe that of a good performance is beyond me. It seems the expectation of Maguire is at such a low that a minimal performance passes as acceptable. Has to be reminded that the said player cost 80 million. If this same thing has been used as a measure to assess the influence of Pogba the same must be done for Harry.

He's a woeful defender, it's going to take two-three consistent seasons of brilliant form to change the narrative. Have people such short memories to not see the respective players of Rio / Vidic that is the standard of quality worthy of accolade and praise. "Best form" "immense" absolutely comical observations.

 

[Mainoldo]

Really don’t like him. He’s one of the reasons why the attack and defence are so far apart. We was in our box far too often when we should of been pushing the line up.

Hopefully Ralf fixes that.

 

[Wednesday at Stoke]

He’s going through a wretched run of form. If Varane was healthy, it would have been tempting to give him a phantom injury like Luke Shaw and let him take some time off.

 

[Real Name]

Decent but it was so daft to pull an Arsenal player like that in the 2nd half. We were lucky not to concede a pen.

 

[Kostov]

Was good, just needs to stop hanging on to the ball so much. Anything more than 2 touches for a CB is not composure, it's overkill and impacts our transition.

Can you really blame him for that? How would you feel watching McT and Fred pass aback and sideways 80% of the time? He did more long creative work yesterday than our 2 CM combined. Yet I agree he can be more fast thinking some times.

 

[Mike Smalling]

'Superb'. 'Brilliant'. Give me a break. He was decent enough overall, and damn lucky not to give away a penalty with what was a trademark Maguire brainfart.

Seen over a season this needs to be his average performance level (barring the penalty mistake).

 

[simmee]

Thought he was a lot better yesterday than previously this season, looked like he was trying to be quicker on the ball than usual. But he got very lucky when he pulled the Arsenal player down, this thread would've been a lot different if the ref (rightfully) would've given a pen for it.

 

[youmeletsfly]

Nah, he didn't have a better game, just a game where he didn't make a mistake that lead to a direct goal.
Other than that, he was the usual, slow passing, sleeping on the ball and getting covered by Lindelof a few times.

 

[arnie_ni]

He made a couple of clearances. I don't think he was that impressive. His positioning and awareness in defensive areas is so poor.

Second Arsenal goal is a good example, yes Fred should track the runner. But he's more concerned about running back to the goal than holding his position and blocking the cut back.

After that, Fred was chasing a high ball over the top from White into the left centre back channel. Maguire was nowhere to be seen.

It's his job to get across the front post.

As it is Victor's on the other side.

 

[Lentwood]

I genuinely think some people on here need to find a new sport. It baffles me how some people can be so clueless yet are so bullish in their opinions. They clearly don't understand the first thing about what they are watching, but still pop up here talking nonsense.

As I said before, Maguire was brilliant yesterday. Absolutely first-class, everything you would want in a modern CB. This is why the bloke is rated so highly by actual football managers, is captain of Manchester United and one of the first names on the teamsheets for one of the best national football sides in the World.

 

[simmee]

He can play it faster when he's got movement around him, this is easily sorted by coaching. We can be glad though that he's composed and can keep in all those tight situations and under pressure, other than sending it to row Z like Lindelof and keep us in possession when needed - those are the bits which differentiate him from average defenders.

Everyone else have been able to play it a lot faster than him. Maguire and Shaw are ridiculously slow on the ball at times. "those are the bits which differentiate him from average defenders" Lindelof and Maguire have more or less the same passing% this season, with Lindelof being slightly higher looking only at Utd games. Lindelof has a couple of assists as well so he arguably tries harder passes. Maguire has zero key passes for Utd this season.

 

[sp_107]

I genuinely think some people on here need to find a new sport. It baffles me how some people can be so clueless yet are so bullish in their opinions. They clearly don't understand the first thing about what they are watching, but still pop up here talking nonsense.

As I said before, Maguire was brilliant yesterday. Absolutely first-class, everything you would want in a modern CB. This is why the bloke is rated so highly by actual football managers, is captain of Manchester United and one of the first names on the teamsheets for one of the best national football sides in the World.

Are you his sister

I still think Varane/Baily is the best combo in CD

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Highlights the flaws of Maguire. He doesn't have sound judgement to weigh up danger in a situation. He plays like a robot who can't discern threats in the phases of play so almost sticks to the basis of defending like it's the highway code of driving. He made an error no doubt a better defender positions himself effectively to if not intercept that pass atleast reduce the angle that the pass is misplaced.

No, he did exactly what he has to do.

If he doesn’t, the cross goes into Auba, who’s ahead of Lindelöf and you are on here going bananas about how shit he is at sensing danger because he was hanging out with Ödegaard on the edge of the box rather than defending the front post on the cross as a CB always fecking should do.

 

[Adam-Utd]

Apart from the silly grab at Tomayasu on the free kick I thought he looked back to his best again. Some towering defensive headers when we really needed them.

 

[Leftback99]

If Bailly played half as well as him last night we'd be seeing posts of how he's the 'best CB at the club'.

 

[Marwood]

Really don’t like him. He’s one of the reasons why the attack and defence are so far apart. We was in our box far too often when we should of been pushing the line up.

Hopefully Ralf fixes that.

He pushed up plenty today. Was in their half on the ball a good number of times.

Thought he had a really good game.

I liked seeing a few longer balls from him as well. Gets us up the pitch, at their backline, as opposed to shuffling it around in defence.

 

[Cnaiür urs Skiötha]

Clearly an improvement but he will always be quite slow and clumsy. Not sure if you can compete with the top teams these days with someone like him in defence.

 

[Mainoldo]

He pushed up plenty today. Was in their half on the ball a good number of times.

Thought he had a really good game.

I liked seeing a few longer balls from him as well. Gets us up the pitch, at their backline, as opposed to shuffling it around in defence.

He did push up a lot that was true. But from the defensive aspect his pace is always having to be covered.

But everyone should get a free pass. Let’s hope he improves.

 

[Marwood]

He did push up a lot that was true. But from the defensive aspect his pace is always having to be covered.

But everyone should get a free pass. Let’s hope he improves.

That's true of lots of top level centre backs though. If they get caught up the field, the vast majority aren't catching up with a forward. That includes the likes of Dias and Laporte. They're not all that quick either. Is Matip all that quick?