Harry Maguire: I shouldn't really need to prove myself at this level. I've made over 50 caps, I'm England's top-scoring defender

adexkola said:
Trust fans to make a mountain out of a molehill.

This won't affect Maguire's standing in the squad. This will only get fans with an agenda even more riled up at his presence in the squad (which again, the manager/players is not concerned about). Not match going fans either. feck em.
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Why should we care what an Arse supporter thinks? Your captain gave your match-going fans the middle finger and they're still fawning over him.


I know this guy is supposedly a United supporter but I couldn't help myself.
 
adexkola said:
Trust fans to make a mountain out of a molehill.

This won't affect Maguire's standing in the squad. This will only get fans with an agenda even more riled up at his presence in the squad (which again, the manager/players is not concerned about). Not match going fans either. feck em.
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It's not an agenda, I just cannot stand him. The quicker he's gone, the better.
 
i think he overestimates how good he is and the fans overestimate how bad he is.

He's good enough to play in the league.... but not for us (or any team that is trying to win trophies). He is a lot too slow and a little too clumsy to be playing for us, but he could play decently for a team that sits back and counters
 
I'm not in agreement with those that say that Maguire is terrible. He's not. He's a decent player. But that's about it. He's not a captain and he's also not currently good enough to start for us. Personally, I don't have an issue with him until he does these interviews and presents himself as arrogant. If he didn't talk himself up like this and just put the work in to try to earn his place back I don't think many would have a problem with him.
 
adexkola said:
He's on his way out whether or not he gives diplomatic interviews or not.

Players are too respectful of shit talking fans IMO, but that's a side note.
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Fans pay their wages, Harry.
 
shamans said:
The irony is he was addressing this as if he has something to prove or show before we consider him a good defender. He is backing himself up but of course we all will take issue with this because of the immature anti Maguire twitter/reddit compilations out there.

Even now when he makes a sub appearance or starts the odd game the criticism is completely ridiculous.
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He always has something to prove though! Especially after his recent years here. Christ every footballer has to prove himself constantly or he's going to be cast off and out of a club, welcome to professional sports. People don't just randomly decide to start complaining/disliking players, I promise you the fanbase didn't wake up one day and just say "feck this guy". Hell for the longest time everyone here was discussing his "right partner" and trying to figure out everything we could do to mitigate his weaknesses when the reality is he's a fecking mid/bottom table type defender, which has been proven almost instantly this year with the improvement in our defense without him in it.

This need for everyone to defend him because he's "a nice bloke" and plays well for England is just bizarre. People act like he's a club legend that's being phased out and hated by the fanbase after giving everything to the club. He's not.
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
He always has something to prove though! Especially after his recent years here. Christ every footballer has to prove himself constantly or he's going to be cast off and out of a club, welcome to professional sports. People don't just randomly decide to start complaining/disliking players, I promise you the fanbase didn't wake up one day and just say "feck this guy". Hell for the longest time everyone here was discussing his "right partner" and trying to figure out everything we could do to mitigate his weaknesses when the reality is he's a fecking mid/bottom table type defender, which has been proven almost instantly this year with the improvement in our defense without him in it.

This need for everyone to defend him because he's "a nice bloke" and plays well for England is just bizarre. People act like he's a club legend that's being phased out and hated by the fanbase after giving everything to the club. He's not.
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In a way, that is what happened.

His criticism was 100% fair especially from the more educated fans on here but he became a meme of a defender, and you and I both know that was not fair. Likely because he's a Man United defender (easy target) and it reflects poorly on us with the amount we spent on him but that transfer fee is not his concern.

There is so much crap out there against Maguire as if he's one of the worst defenders this league has seen. None of that criticism is fair at all. It's just trolling/mockery as if he's a simple joke of a defender. In the context of all this, Maguire is saying he doesn't have to "prove" anything. That is what I understood anyway and maybe I'm wrong but given the trolling of Maguire it makes sense to me why he would say what he did.

The defense of Maguire is because it's gone over the top. He'll have a regular/average outing for us and fans will start going nuts over one missed tackle or something. We've seen it happen to players of ours in the past for instance Fellaini or Fred.
 
shamans said:
The irony is he was addressing this as if he has something to prove or show before we consider him a good defender. He is backing himself up but of course we all will take issue with this because of the immature anti Maguire twitter/reddit compilations out there.

Even now when he makes a sub appearance or starts the odd game the criticism is completely ridiculous.
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I would say his biggest strength is his heading ability. Lacks in most other attributes. He has no right to be at a club which aspires to play progressive football. He's too slow and takes an eternity to release the ball allowing the opposition to get into shape.

Would be a decent player at a club lower half of the premiership.
 
The issue is how he sees himself now. He needs to leave, but he is sounding like someone who still believes he has a role to play at a club like United.

I can’t see where the mentality of “I need a step down” is going to come from. Privately, he might be advised in a different way, but almost every interview he does is defiant and convinces you that he seems himself as having a role to play at Old Trafford.
 
He might hang on for one more tournament as Stones' partner, as I'm not sure Guehi or Colwill are quite ready and Joe Gomez has gone backwards and even if Mings does well under Emery, nobody will trust him. But probably it will be one tournament too many.
 
I support him as an above-average United player in his position. He has not complained about being behind two defenders he knows are better than him. He has not given interviews about how he has been disrespected by the coach or club for not starting him. I have no issues with him trying to keep his chin up given the ridiculous amount of over the top criticism he has received from outside and unfortunately within the United family.
 
shamans said:
In a way, that is what happened.

His criticism was 100% fair especially from the more educated fans on here but he became a meme of a defender, and you and I both know that was not fair. Likely because he's a Man United defender (easy target) and it reflects poorly on us with the amount we spent on him but that transfer fee is not his concern.

There is so much crap out there against Maguire as if he's one of the worst defenders this league has seen. None of that criticism is fair at all. It's just trolling/mockery as if he's a simple joke of a defender. In the context of all this, Maguire is saying he doesn't have to "prove" anything. That is what I understood anyway and maybe I'm wrong but given the trolling of Maguire it makes sense to me why he would say what he did.

The defense of Maguire is because it's gone over the top. He'll have a regular/average outing for us and fans will start going nuts over one missed tackle or something. We've seen it happen to players of ours in the past for instance Fellaini or Fred.
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And he will also have a pretty basic game which gets lauded as a good performance.
 
kouroux said:
And he will also have a pretty basic game which gets lauded as a good performance.
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That’s the thing though, because we’re use to watching him play poor or make mistakes that when he has a quiet game or doesn’t have to do much then it looks like he’s had a good game.
 
DJ_21 said:
That’s the thing though, because we’re use to watching him play poor or make mistakes that when he has a quiet game or doesn’t have to do much then it looks like he’s had a good game.
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Have we ever read something along the lines of him admitting that last season was a true calamity and he was really bad ? I really hate it when players don't admit they've been bad when they've been very bad.
 
He’s probably talking himself up in anticipation of his next/final move. It’s a better sell than “I’m shit”.
 
kouroux said:
Have we ever read something along the lines of him admitting that last season was a true calamity and he was really bad ? I really hate it when players don't admit they've been bad when they've been very bad.
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He did, but in the same quote pointed out how everyone else around him was bad too. Check OP, it's in last tweet.
 
He's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. The top scoring defender thing sounds a bit silly though, a bit like when he posted a highlights video of his passing skills against Norwich on social media at a time of criticism.
 
So essentially he is quoting stats at everyone as proof that he is up to United standard. But there’s literally no context to these stats.

Highest scoring defender - so he should be. His head is massive. But that’s not his job, pointless statistic. It’s like saying “Striker X is good at pressing a defense and defending set pieces so his poor goals to game ratio doesn’t matter”. It’s nice to have but it’s not required and it’s putting a plaster on his actual metrics.

200 appearances for United - They paid £80 million for you, it’s not City where you’ll rot on the bench, your going to play. United want a return on their investment in you. Again, this really ignores reality. Nothing to do with performance and more to do with your competition, perma -crocks Bailly and Jones for a start. At times they simply didn’t have any choice but to play you.

3 years as captain - everybody knows you should never have been made captain.The fact it was given to you is more damning of the lack of leadership in the club at the time. If you had signed today, you wouldn’t be close to it, fact.

Poor last season, everyone was poor.. - while this was clearly true (like my own club this year) there’s two big red flags here. Failure to acknowledge he has been inconsistent at best for more than a year and secondly, you’re captain fecking own your shit and stop throwing everyone under the bus in a clear and poor attempt at deflection you cnut. In a season you can write off as a fan, you should be able to look at certain players and think, they tried their best but they can’t do it alone. Absolutely no one has every thought that about slabhead. When the team goes missing, he is usually part of the problem.

Poor poor leadship and an absolute car crash interview. This is Randy Andy level.
 
SirReginald said:
So essentially he is quoting stats at everyone as proof that he is up to United standard. But there’s literally no context to these stats.

Highest scoring defender - so he should be. His head is massive. But that’s not his job, pointless statistic. It’s like saying “Striker X is good at pressing a defense and defending set pieces so his poor goals to game ratio doesn’t matter”. It’s nice to have but it’s not required and it’s putting a plaster on his actual metrics.

200 appearances for United - They paid £80 million for you, it’s not City where you’ll rot on the bench, your going to play. United want a return on their investment in you. Again, this really ignores reality. Nothing to do with performance and more to do with your competition, perma -crocks Bailly and Jones for a start. At times they simply didn’t have any choice but to play you.

3 years as captain - everybody knows you should never have been made captain.The fact it was given to you is more damning of the lack of leadership in the club at the time. If you had signed today, you wouldn’t be close to it, fact.

Poor last season, everyone was poor.. - while this was clearly true (like my own club this year) there’s two big red flags here. Failure to acknowledge he has been inconsistent at best for more than a year and secondly, you’re captain fecking own your shit and stop throwing everyone under the bus in a clear and poor attempt at deflection you cnut. In a season you can write off as a fan, you should be able to look at certain players and think, they tried their best but they can’t do it alone. Absolutely no one has every thought that about slabhead. When the team goes missing, he is usually part of the problem.

Poor poor leadship and an absolute car crash interview. This is Randy Andy level.
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Give it a rest, it was an interview about England.
Stop embarrassing yourselves.
 
SirReginald said:
So essentially he is quoting stats at everyone as proof that he is up to United standard. But there’s literally no context to these stats.

Highest scoring defender - so he should be. His head is massive. But that’s not his job, pointless statistic. It’s like saying “Striker X is good at pressing a defense and defending set pieces so his poor goals to game ratio doesn’t matter”. It’s nice to have but it’s not required and it’s putting a plaster on his actual metrics.

200 appearances for United - They paid £80 million for you, it’s not City where you’ll rot on the bench, your going to play. United want a return on their investment in you. Again, this really ignores reality. Nothing to do with performance and more to do with your competition, perma -crocks Bailly and Jones for a start. At times they simply didn’t have any choice but to play you.

3 years as captain - everybody knows you should never have been made captain.The fact it was given to you is more damning of the lack of leadership in the club at the time. If you had signed today, you wouldn’t be close to it, fact.

Poor last season, everyone was poor.. - while this was clearly true (like my own club this year) there’s two big red flags here. Failure to acknowledge he has been inconsistent at best for more than a year and secondly, you’re captain fecking own your shit and stop throwing everyone under the bus in a clear and poor attempt at deflection you cnut. In a season you can write off as a fan, you should be able to look at certain players and think, they tried their best but they can’t do it alone. Absolutely no one has every thought that about slabhead. When the team goes missing, he is usually part of the problem.

Poor poor leadship and an absolute car crash interview. This is Randy Andy level.
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Spot on, don't mind the fanboys.
 
adexkola said:
Trust fans to make a mountain out of a molehill.

This won't affect Maguire's standing in the squad. This will only get fans with an agenda even more riled up at his presence in the squad (which again, the manager/players is not concerned about). Not match going fans either. feck em.
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Genuinely, what agenda would someone have against Maguire?
 
He needs to "sell" himself well. So he's doing what United would profit, too. He's not leaving for free, like Pogba and Lingard.

Hopefully more people can see the bigger picture here. He's "selling" himself, it means he wants to go. Now you compare him to Lindelof that keeps quite. It means he wants to stay, or if we sell him it would be on cheap.
 
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He's a different player for England, but if Southgate ever realizes he doesn't have to play like a mid table PL side circa 1996, Maguire will be fecked.
 
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