[Shimo]

Coaches really need to drill him into him to start thinking of what he is going to do before he receives the ball. Seeing Varane next to him, it's such a stark difference in how much faster the ball is moved on by Varane. Maguire today seemed every time he received the ball, he would be looking down to stop the ball and then look up to figure out what to do next.

Oh and crap for their goal but, otherwise him and Varane make a formidable partnership back there and adding to the fact that him, Ronaldo, Varane on set pieces makes such a difference compared to everything being aimed at him.

 

[SAFMUTD]

Looked awful on Newcastle's goal. What the feck was he thinking.

 

[#07]

Looked awful on Newcastle's goal. What the feck was he thinking.

Bizarre. Only had to stand strong and let Almiron run into him. Very silly decision making. Had a good game besides but you have to do better as Captain of United. There was no need to force the issue there and he ended up selling the whole defence short, as none of them were set to defend the counter. Its one of the things Pep Guardiola is very good at instilling into his defence on turnovers. If that's Fernandinho or Dias they just body check Almiron, give away the tactical foul and regroup. Maguire's not new to this level. He needs to show his smarts now. Especially if he's gonna have the armband in a team that contains serial winners like Ronaldo and Varane in it.

 

[Kush]

Very shaky start to the season from him. Varane is making him look quite average, hope he kicks on from here.

 

[SAFMUTD]

Bizarre. Only had to stand strong and let Almiron run into him. Very silly decision making. Had a good game besides but you have to do better as Captain of United. There was no need to force the issue there and he ended up selling the whole defence short, as none of them were set to defend the counter. Its one of the things Pep Guardiola is very good at instilling into his defence on turnovers. If that's Fernandinho or Dias they just body check Almiron, give away the tactical foul and regroup. Maguire's not new to this level. He needs to show his smarts now. Especially if he's gonna have the armband in a team that contains serial winners like Ronaldo and Varane in it.

Exactly it was a perfect situation for the classic tactical foul to cut the play. If not then preassure Almiron and gain some time, I just don't understand why of all the options he choose to slide with the risk of him failing and leaving us wide open as it happened.

 

[Giant Midget]

Annoys me so much when he runs towards the player he’s going to pass to, taking 3-4 touches along the way. fecking keep it moving and pass it quickly

 

[Red00012]

Diving in for that tackle that lead to the goal like wtf

 

[The Mitcher]

He left Varane against two cos of his diving. Still, other than that one mistake he was solid. I do think he has a great partnership with Varane already.

 

[LoneStar]

He started slow last season, and then became better and better as the season went on. So think he'll come good sooner than later.

Having said that, I hope Ole starts Lindelof with Varane for the CL game. Be interesting to see how they pair together.

 

[Stadjer]

Very shaky start to the season from him. Varane is making him look quite average, hope he kicks on from here.

Varane is showing the difference between a world class defender and a decent/good premier league defender. A bit like how John Terry had Gary Cahill on his side, one world class and one adequate defender. Together good enough to compete... atleast i hope.

 

[PlayerOne]

Maybe he's just a slow starter, but he really step up his game now. If the midfield is lacking when it comes to defence duties then he needs to be on his best to cover up for that and help us win the league.

 

[Devil may care]

Huge blundebuss on the goal but other than that he was solid enough, Varane next to him is a Rolls Royce and he's more of a Range Rover.

 

[Revan]

Varane is showing the difference between a world class defender and a decent/good premier league defender. A bit like how John Terry had Gary Cahill on his side, one world class and one adequate defender. Together good enough to compete... atleast i hope.

Indeed. Although that is still ok. The only partnerships I remember in EPL where both CBs were world-class are Rio-Vidic and Terry-Carvajlo.

Despite that Varane is the quite better defender, I think we have the best CB department with City (who also have a world class CB in Dias, and two great ones in Laporte/Stones though Maguire is IMO better than both), and better than Liverpool (Matip/Gomes are not as good as Maguire). I don't think that CBs are gonna be a problem in us competing this season, midfield and RB are our weakest points.

 

[Escobar]

Very shaky start to the season from him. Varane is making him look quite average, hope he kicks on from here.

I felt the same, he looks okish next to a Varane

 

[K Stand Knut]

He started slow last season, and then became better and better as the season went on. So think he'll come good sooner than later.

Having said that, I hope Ole starts Lindelof with Varane for the CL game. Be interesting to see how they pair together.

You seriously think Lindelof would be a better partner for Varane than Maguire??

If you do, I will question your sanity forevermore

 

[LoneStar]

You seriously think Lindelof would be a better partner for Varane than Maguire??

If you do, I will question your sanity forevermore

Where did I say that? I said Lindelof should play the Young Boys game. Rest Maguire.

 

[iKnowNothing]

You seriously think Lindelof would be a better partner for Varane than Maguire??

If you do, I will question your sanity forevermore

Wow! I didn’t know Harry fecking Maguire had such a blind following! It’s quite bizarre

 

[NinjaZombie]

Done like a kipper for their goal. Imagine diving in that situation with more than half the pitch behind you.

Anyone else noticed Ole talking and gesticulating to him with a pissed off face when the team was celebrating Ronaldo's 2nd goal? Probably annoyed at how we conceded that goal.

 

[jem]

He hasn't had the greatest start but I still feel way more confident about him now than I did at this time last year. I think he and Varane will form the best partnership in the Prem.

 

[Lyng]

You seriously think Lindelof would be a better partner for Varane than Maguire??

If you do, I will question your sanity forevermore

Not in the league but against teams from Germany, Spain, Portugal etc I think Lindelöf could be valuable.
Maguire os much better against physical and pacy teams, but against more technical teams Lindelöf's more intelligent approach could be useful.

 

[roonster09]

Not in the league but against teams from Germany, Spain, Portugal etc I think Lindelöf could be valuable.
Maguire os much better against physical and pacy teams, but against more technical teams Lindelöf's more intelligent approach could be useful.

I don't see what's so intelligent about Lindelof's approach.

 

[Lyng]

I don't see what's so intelligent about Lindelof's approach.

He is usually quite good at reading plays and getting in the way. His issue is when he meets physical opponents and challenges in the air.

Maguire is excellent against the types of opponents that Lindelöf struggles against. On the other hand Maguire does stupid things like the challenge that cost us the goal against Newcastle. Something that gets punished by teams that play more technical football.

It would be silly not to utilize the fact that we have two defenders with such different strengths and weaknesses.

 

[Strelok]

Bizarre. Only had to stand strong and let Almiron run into him. Very silly decision making. Had a good game besides but you have to do better as Captain of United. There was no need to force the issue there and he ended up selling the whole defence short, as none of them were set to defend the counter. Its one of the things Pep Guardiola is very good at instilling into his defence on turnovers. If that's Fernandinho or Dias they just body check Almiron, give away the tactical foul and regroup. Maguire's not new to this level. He needs to show his smarts now. Especially if he's gonna have the armband in a team that contains serial winners like Ronaldo and Varane in it.

Imo even if Harry didn't make the tackle Almiron would simply knock the ball past him and run away anyway. Almiron wasn't runing toward Harry and Harry was a bit far from him. His problem is rather being slow not his decision making imo. Watch this and you'd see I think.

 

[#07]

Imo even if Harry didn't make the tackle Almiron would simply knock the ball past him and run away anyway. Almiron wasn't runing toward Harry and Harry was a bit far from him. His problem is rather being slow not his decision making imo. Watch this and you'd see I think.

I agree that Maguire's not best placed. But I think he should just step into the path of Almiron's run. Even if he's unable to get a full contact, he should be able to clip him and force Almiron to lose balance. Yes, it'd be a foul. Maybe even a yellow card, since the rules seem to be applied different if you are not Fernandino. However, it would have stopped the counter. If Harry jumps in front of him standing, instead of trying to slide, Almiron just collides with him and the counter attack ends. Worst comes to worst: Chiellini. Grab his shirt and hold on. Maguire needs to be smarter.

 

[Strelok]

I agree that Maguire's not best placed. But I think he should just step into the path of Almiron's run. Even if he's unable to get a full contact, he should be able to clip him and force Almiron to lose balance. Yes, it'd be a foul. Maybe even a yellow card, since the rules seem to be applied different if you are not Fernandino. However, it would have stopped the counter. If Harry jumps in front of him standing, instead of trying to slide, Almiron just collides with him and the counter attack ends.

A defender opt for a tackle usually because he knows he wouldn't make it if he run. Even with the tackle Harry couldn't make it I don't think he could step into the path of Almiron's run. You could notice Almiron was not runing in a straight line, he was running away from Harry and Harry, knowing himself couldn't make it opted for the tackle. But he was unsuccessful. That's all I think.

If you watch the whole situation again you'd see it's really hard to blame anyone for that goal. Our whole defense and midfield was caught off because of a bad clearance that somehow ended up with Almiron. Imo you can say there's some lack of concentration with Matic and Shaw though. They should have keep a closer eye on Almiron.

 

[#07]

A defender opt for a tackle usually because he knows he wouldn't make it if he run. Even with the tackle Harry couldn't make it I don't think he could step into the path of Almiron's run. You could notice Almiron was not runing in a straight line, he was running away from Harry and Harry, knowing himself couldn't make it opted for the tackle. But he was unsuccessful. That's all I think.

If you watch the whole situation again you'd see it's really hard to blame anyone for that goal. Our whole defense and midfield was caught off because of a bad clearance that somehow ended up with Almiron. Imo you can say there's some lack of concentration with Matic and Shaw though. They should have keep a closer eye on Almiron.

It's hard to judge because we don't have data on speed, direction or whatever. We are trying to judge it by eye. I think Maguire can make a foul there. Almiron jumps over his tackle, if he went in with his body rather than his legs I think he can body check him.

But if you are right that he couldn't, because he's too slow, then he needs to drop off.

You point out correctly that our defence was all over the place when that move started. Shaw was closer to the right touchline than the left, Matic was ambling about, Varane was covering half the pitch. Harry makes the call to go in rather than start running backwards. If he knows he can't win the ball he has to try to get back to help Varane, otherwise Varane is in a 2v1.

You are not wrong to point out that it's not as simple as saying Maguire made the mistake, that's why Newcastle scored. But his decision was probably the key one given how out of shape we were. If he grabs Almiron's shirt, even after Almiron's jumped his challenge I don't think he gets a red. Too many United shirts about. But it stops the counter.

When I see City defend counters, a lot of the time they don't even try to win the ball. They just stop the man, give away a free kick and reorganize. We need that same kind of streetwise approach.

 

[Strelok]

It's hard to judge because we don't have data on speed, direction or whatever. We are trying to judge it by eye. I think Maguire can make a foul there. Almiron jumps over his tackle, if he went in with his body rather than his legs I think he can body check him.

But if you are right that he couldn't, because he's too slow, then he needs to drop off.

You point out correctly that our defence was all over the place when that move started. Shaw was closer to the right touchline than the left, Matic was ambling about, Varane was covering half the pitch. Harry makes the call to go in rather than start running backwards. If he knows he can't win the ball he has to try to get back to help Varane, otherwise Varane is in a 2v1.

You are not wrong to point out that it's not as simple as saying Maguire made the mistake, that's why Newcastle scored. But his decision was probably the key one given how out of shape we were. If he grabs Almiron's shirt, even after Almiron's jumped his challenge I don't think he gets a red. Too many United shirts about. But it stops the counter.

When I see City defend counters, a lot of the time they don't even try to win the ball. They just stop the man, give away a free kick and reorganize. We need that same kind of streetwise approach.

As I said if a defender opt for a tackle, that means he knows he wouldn't make it if he runs. But that doesn't mean at that moment he think he couldn't make it with his tackle. It was quite close that Harry could have stopped the ball, or Almiron. Imo Harry made the logical choice in that situation, but he was a bit slow to successfully do it. That's why I said his problem was rather being slow than his decision making.

 

[Brightonian]

Varane's hardly been flawless either so far. They've both been done much too easily 1-on-1 on a few occasions so far.

It's what any sensible person would have expected to see. They're both excellent defenders but partnerships take a while to build and until the partnership is solid the individuals will be a bit shaky too. Patience, please.

 

[A-man]

It's hard to judge because we don't have data on speed, direction or whatever. We are trying to judge it by eye. I think Maguire can make a foul there. Almiron jumps over his tackle, if he went in with his body rather than his legs I think he can body check him.

But if you are right that he couldn't, because he's too slow, then he needs to drop off.

You point out correctly that our defence was all over the place when that move started. Shaw was closer to the right touchline than the left, Matic was ambling about, Varane was covering half the pitch. Harry makes the call to go in rather than start running backwards. If he knows he can't win the ball he has to try to get back to help Varane, otherwise Varane is in a 2v1.

You are not wrong to point out that it's not as simple as saying Maguire made the mistake, that's why Newcastle scored. But his decision was probably the key one given how out of shape we were. If he grabs Almiron's shirt, even after Almiron's jumped his challenge I don't think he gets a red. Too many United shirts about. But it stops the counter.

When I see City defend counters, a lot of the time they don't even try to win the ball. They just stop the man, give away a free kick and reorganize. We need that same kind of streetwise approach.

His positioning and his decision were very bad. What is a left CB doing in that position? He must understand that it will be wide open behind him. It’s a decision making problem more than poor execution, and we see this problem every now and then with him.

City often take tactical fouls in similar situations, but their midfield don’t lose possession as often as ours, so they don’t need to deal with one counter every 5 minutes.

 

[westmeath]

A horror show for the Newcastle goal. I struggle to believe the excuses being put forward here. Unforgivable but not really that surprising. It was a real classic Harry Maguire move.

 

[CG1010]

You guys are being incredibly hard on him. In the last couple of games, we have set up in a way that there is barely any midfield protection for the CBs. They have faced several 1 on 1 or 2 on 2 situations and got the danger clear. In the last game, most of the Newcastle chances came from own errors like AWB or Matic giving the ball away very close to the box. But in this set up the opposition team is bound to have 1 or 2 clear chances and this time they scored from one while against Wolves the two CBs managed a cleansheet (with GK heroics and poor finishing help of course). Ole's bet seems to be that we will still outscore them which makes for a very entertaining game.

Hopefully Maguire and Varane would form a greater understanding and become more solid (i.e. one goes for the ball while the other is covering etc.). And they will get some amount of midfield protection. In my books it has been a solid performance by Maguire (though not unexpected).

 

[EtH]

Varane's hardly been flawless either so far. They've both been done much too easily 1-on-1 on a few occasions so far.

It's what any sensible person would have expected to see. They're both excellent defenders but partnerships take a while to build and until the partnership is solid the individuals will be a bit shaky too. Patience, please.

Thought they were both uncharacteristically shaky at times versus Newcastle. No doubt Matic’s MIA act had much to do with it, but there were moments of hesitation from Varane and some bad decisions from Maguire. Not too worried though. Think they will be a fantastic partnership.

 

[RedCurry]

He was just too eager to make that tackle and he’ll know better next time. Glad it didn’t cost us any points and he got that mistake out of his system.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

He's doing well. Yes, he had that one brain-fart against Newcastle where he committed and was made to look silly, but in general, our CB pairing is working very well IMO. Learn and move on.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Imo even if Harry didn't make the tackle Almiron would simply knock the ball past him and run away anyway. Almiron wasn't runing toward Harry and Harry was a bit far from him. His problem is rather being slow not his decision making imo. Watch this and you'd see I think.

Knowing that he's slow he should have been backing away and buying time rather than moving forward. Basically doing the thing that Lindelof does throughout the 90 minutes.

 

[Strelok]

Knowing that he's slow he should have been backing away and buying time rather than moving forward. Basically doing the thing that Lindelof does throughout the 90 minutes.

Tbh Harry must have a core i9 inside his head to calculate that his tackle couldn't make it and run back. The margin was very small. Everything happened in like a blink of eye.

 

[Kostov]

Typical of this forum, the CDM (Matic) and also Shaw, get left behind and the shape of the team cut open in one move by Almiron, Maguire sees this tries to stop the move with a tackle which is wrong (but I also think even without tackling, he wasn't going to stop him), Varane does similar (tackling when he maybe should have also been more patient) but no Maguire let's blame it on Maguire only. Pathetic.

No midfield should be cut open like that and our CDM galloping while a runner is going straight to the defensive line unopposed. We need a proper CDM, Newcastle cut us open just like Wolved did in that previous match.

 

[Kostov]

He was just too eager to make that tackle and he’ll know better next time. Glad it didn’t cost us any points and he got that mistake out of his system.

This, but I am pretty certain that he will do it again, that's just the way he defends.

 

[Pronewbie]

We need to lay off the blame game for the Newcastle goal. I think it was due to tactical unfamiliarity especially with the very high defensive line we were playing. You could see the confusion amongst the players in that scenario and H having a discussion with Ole thereafter.

It was good to let in what turned out to be an inconsequential goal so that things can be sorted out in the training ground.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Shaw and Matic even worse on the goal, pair of em were 2 on 1 and got absolutely skinned. Maguire shouldn’t have dived but I don’t see it playing out differently even he stayed on his feet. Matic and Shaw really fecked it.