Had a shocker this game as well. In a 3 man defence he gets away with it because he has 2 CBs next to him to make up for his defensive liabilities, but in a 2 man pairing at centre back he gets exposed big time. Wouldn't be good for us imo.
Harry Maguire
- Thread starter BlueCelery
- Start date
Had a shocker this game as well. In a 3 man defence he gets away with it because he has 2 CBs next to him to make up for his defensive liabilities, but in a 2 man pairing at centre back he gets exposed big time. Wouldn't be good for us imo.
Do you just hate all English players
Well the likes of Maguire are hardly going to improve us in all fairness. This England side is pretty poor imo but of course there are some good players like Kane and eh....
You go girl.
Awesome performance tonight. I'm delighted Southgate trusted him this tournament instead of going with Smalling and Jones. He got a bit of stick from United fans but I wouldn't want Smalling in this team either given the way we try and play. Maguire, though - what a beast.
What a display from him, Top Class.
He was immense...
Should we go for him ?
He was immense...
Should we go for him ?
He is better than I gave him credit for tbf. Superb tonight
Felt like he won every header.
Full boozer was raving about him. Really like what I've seen this tournament.
Apart from the one Colombian equalised from.
Haha yeah. I was much more impressed with him tonight, but he was beaten for their goal.
Should've gone for him before he joined Leicester. I still think he's better than all our CBs.
MOTM
He needs to keep it up before people get giddy with transfer speculation though
He needs to keep it up before people get giddy with transfer speculation though
I would love him at United after this World Cup showing. He has looked World Class.
World class? Really?
Except the goal....
Mina is an absolute terror in fairness. Brilliant in the air at both ends.
Excellent tonight.
He should be ours. He's a top English talent, precisely the sort of player we go for. I'd take him over Skriniar to go alongside Bailly.
I like him. Defensively can be a bit suspect but he marauds forward with the ball, which is an incredibly useful tool when your CM pairing ends up being Henderson and Dier. I woudn't be sure of him in a back 2 though, a 3 suits him well.
His runs with the ball are amazing for such a big and slow guy.
Which defender are never defensively suspect?
I'd take him over Rojo
He’s excellent, doesn’t get enough credit on here because he plays for Leicester. England’s best CB
Reckon he isn't playing instead of them. Stones is.
How good is this guy? I cant say i really noticed him that much in the past.
This WC he has been a beast!
This WC he has been a beast!
Honestly, I wouldn't want Smalling or Jones starting over any of the back 3 - including Walker. The way we play out from the back is so refreshing and having Smalling or Jones in there would just be a detriment.
Southgate got a lot of stick on here for not bringing Smalling but, and I thought this at the time, he made the right decision. Smalling isn't good enough.
He looks like a fan that has won the right to play for his country in a competition.
He plays like a top drawer centre half. I hadn't seen enough of him prior to the World Cup and doubted his inclusion. Another solid Southgate decision.
He plays like a top drawer centre half. I hadn't seen enough of him prior to the World Cup and doubted his inclusion. Another solid Southgate decision.
Him and Godin have been the outstanding CBs for me so far
See my thinking would be have smalling there for when you have to defend that lead.
It wouldn't have went to extra time with smalling there in my opinion because he would have won the header.
England may have just done it tonight so it could be a moot point, but before the tourny i said at some stage England will have 10 15 20 mins at the end of game to hang on for a win under an onslaught of pressure and thats when you would want to bring your countrys best DEFENDER onto the pitch.
You have a 1 0 lead to defend who do you want doing it, jones? Stones? Walker? Maguire?
Or smalling?
He should have been in the squad to bring on from the bench there tonight to see the game through.
Im not an england fan btw, but i don't trust your defence to batten down the hatches so to speak when it matters.
Let in a goal every game so far
Baffling how we went and paid more for a poorer player in Lindelof considering how good he was for Hull against us.
Love Maguire but odd comparison. Lindelof is having a very good WC at the moment.
Many clubs missed the boat on Maguire.
He’s literally been one of England’s worst players. Don’t know what some of you watch sometimes
Maguire and Robertson were the two obvious players from Hull. Both were very good.
Honestly, even though I agree with Southgates decision, I think taking Smalling as a sub would've been fine, too. Like you say, when we're defending a lead he's good to have because he's a great box defender in that he wins so many headers, and if we need a goal he's a threat from set-pieces, too.
But I admire Southgate's willingness in wanting to play players who are good on the ball. In the long run, I'd hope we'd benefit from this approach.
Also, even though Smalling is very good at winning headers and reading runs from attackers, his clumsiness on the ball and lack of self belief when playing it out from the back (because I have seen him play good passes for United) would just be too much of a hindrance. For me, I take those attributes into account when judging a defender, too. Then again, I'm not the best judge of defenders so I'm not saying I'm right! It's just my opinion on the matter.
Maguire is arguably the best overall CB England has and it's showing in the England set up. His lack of pace compared to his CB partners is balanced out with Stones and Walker. Maguire can carry the ball up the left channel while Stones is behind with Walker to sweep the space behind Stones. Henderson is always equal or behind Maguire when he carries the ball forward.
As said, he's not as effective if England were playing a traditional back 4 or flat defensive line because he would have to be responsible for a lot more space and his lack of quickness within 5 to 10 yards gets him into trouble a bit when he has to defend more space. Smalling should have been in the England squad but that's about it.
I was a harsh critic of Southgate for making that decision. My reasoning was that the benefit of playing out from the back wouldn’t outweigh the benefit having a defender that would be there at the right moment more often than not which for all the criticisms of Smalling you can’t deny he knows how to defend and get down and dirty when it’s needed.
With that said though, taking the balance into consideration I think they’ve done well. They’ve played out from the back really, really well and for the most part have got down and dirty when needed.
I could see both sides. All in all, like I said to @arnie_ni , I think we could've at least took Smalling as an impact sub because he's good at defending a lead, and is a threat at set-pieces if we were chasing a game.
With that said, I still think Southgate made the correct decision because the way we're playing it out from the back is so refreshing and, in general, puts us under less pressure because we know - if we get into a tricky situation - we can play ourselves out of it.
Strange comment that. Do you have a guide dog and white stick?