Anyone was surprised at "how good" Sevilla was last night? Both offensively and defensively?
This is 100% the reason for it. Sevilla dropped down and defended very deep with 11 players. The problem when you do that is that it can become really hard to get up field once you win the ball. But we did not take advantage of that at all in any way shape or form. This is the two Sevilla players furthest up the pitch. Lindelof and Maguire are what 30 ft from them and sprints home at full speed. This happened all night. All Sevilla needed to do was poke a ball loose and they could go on the attack undisturbed. I can easily find 20 similar pictures, and I have to question how ETH handled this issue.
But anyway -- we can say what we want about Lindelof and Maguire. But this is what you get from bad coaching. Lindelof and Maguire have (a) played like this for many many years and (b) they have never played up from the back. Lindelof has played many many games for Sweden -- you can't find a football team that plays up less from the back than Sweden in today's football.
From my point of view -- the big issue is not Maguire, but a deeper problem that will cause bigger issues. There have been talk on how executives in MUFC's transfer department are sceptical about listening too much to ETH expressing concerns along the line of: It will be very damaging for the club if you only hand pick players for him -- and the next coach want a different type of player. I mean, it is 2023, anyone who today forms some sort of educated opinion on what style is best -- for a top team -- in football, can see how playing up from the back and playing a high defensive line is the way to go. All top teams does it. But obviously, if you lived in football 24/7 for 20 years when something else was more effective -- the above just shows that you don't have to see it, you can be stuck in the past. And this is a big challenge for ETH.
When Pep took over Manchester City -- one of the biggest stars on that team was a well established starter for the English national team, GK Joe Hart. This is an direct account from Joe Hart on his first conversation with Pep:
It was a two-hour conversation that kind of ended with him [Guardiola] saying 'I can’t see this working'," Hart said. "He said 'I’ll be the first person to be proved wrong but what I see in you isn’t what I want from my goalkeeper'. "I was like 'it’s all very well saying that, but I’ve never been asked to do the kind of things I know you like your goalkeepers to do, so I think it’s only fair I be given the opportunity'. He said 'of course you’ll be given the opportunity, but…'. As soon as there are any buts at the end you know there’s a decision."
Compared to Joe Hart, DDG was a top ball playing GK (funny thing is that when Sven Goran Eriksson took over Man City, their starting GK was Swedish National Team star Andreas Isaksson, who SGE felt was so bad with his feet that he decided to not give him a chance in favor of Kasper Schmeichel and Joe Hart). Joe Hart just did not have what Guardiola must get from his GK.
To the same extent -- is it not very obvious that Harry Maguire is not a fit at CB for ETH? I think so. Then the relevant question becomes -- why the heck is he still here? Again, its 2023. It is downright remarkable that someone, anyone, thought that Maguire could be a good idea for ETH's style. How far is it from say someone thinking Usain Bolt would be a top striker in the Premier League? Its like early in WW1 when people sent in the cavalery (on horses) against machine guns in trenches. To be brutally honest, anyone thinking that Maguire might be a good idea for ETH must -- from my point of view -- be completely disattached to what works in the game of football today. And this obviously applies to our -- current -- management.
And this is not a knock on Harry Maguire per se. Joe Hart went on to play for Inter Milan IIRC. But you cannot squezze a square peg into a round hole at the highest level.
