Is Harry Maguire being a worldwide punchline deserved?

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DRJosh said:
A move to Leicester (if they stay up) would be an ideal homecoming for him and be more attuned to his level.

And to those posters on here who think we shouldn’t be overtly critical of United players- blind faith sucks the joy and meaning of being a fan. A vocal and purposefully critical fan base is a necessary ingredient for success.
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No thanks.

Keep him.
 
Mmm-Qatarian said:
No idea why Rojo thinks he can talk. Absolutely fecking dire player. Maguire might be awful now but he was miles better than Rojo when the two were both at United.

I imagine some in here will probably be backing him though.
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Both are shit. But it again shows another thing; Solskjaer was weak manager. Some managers have balls to drop their big money signings. Solskjaer was too afraid to do it.
 
Re: Smalling, the funny thing was that when we got him and Jones, it was widely considered that Smalling was the Rio-heir and Jones the Vidic-heir. In his first season or two, Smalling was described as a 'Rolls Royce of a defender' and very much the composed, ball-playing CB. Somehow that reputation got completely reversed seemingly overnight, and I have never been quite sure exactly when, how or why. I suspect that Smalling in a slightly more competent defensive unit, with a more commanding GK behind him (a key part for any defensive setup, but thats another story), would have no issues with his on-the-ball ability or distribution.

As for Maguire, he has been with the club some 5 years now. For at least the first couple of those, he was pretty much ever-present and provided some actual consistency and decent performances after a period of utter turmoil for us at CB. He deserves a bit more credit and respect, even if he now comes across as quite arrogant and some of his more recent performances have absolutely fallen off a cliff. People laugh at the pricetag - which was always ridiculous - but Maguire did shore up our backline for a good period of time. He shouldnt have been made captain, and he shouldnt keep going on about how great he is, and clearly he has no confidence whatsoever nowadays on the pitch, but he was a perfectly solid and competent defender for us for a decent period.
 
Based Adnan said:
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Pot and kettle thing.

However, if this is true about the talk with Ole, then it's telling about his peers' opinion on him. Also reflecting badly on Ole reasoning for playing because his status (big money signing). I don't believe unless proofed with sound/video interview.
 
Walrus said:
I suspect that Smalling in a slightly more competent defensive unit, with a more commanding GK behind him (a key part for any defensive setup, but thats another story), would have no issues with his on-the-ball ability or distribution.
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He obviously would have benefited greatly from a more competent unit and a more commanding GK. But there's no way he would've turned into Rio Mk 2. He simply wasn't anywhere near Rio's overall level.

Prime Rio is a player you can compare to Bobby Moore in the context of historically great English defenders.

Smalling is a run-of-the-mill player in that context, nothing more (obviously). And that has nothing to do with him being dealt a shit hand in terms of the unit or the GK.
 
ti vu said:
Pot and kettle thing.

However, if this is true about the talk with Ole, then it's telling about his peers' opinion on him. Also reflecting badly on Ole reasoning for playing because his status (big money signing). I don't believe unless proofed with sound/video interview.
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Maguire was playing well at the time though. Because he's been crap lately, people are now acting like Maguire has always been crap for us. This isn't true. His first two seasons at the club were largely good.

You can quite reasonably slate Ole for having favourites but not in that scenario. Why should he drop a player playing well at the time for a player who was completely shite at the time?

If this quote from Rojo is legitimate (and, of course, there is every chance that it has been exaggerated), he clearly has a crap mindset because he's using Maguire as an excuse for not being good enough to make the grade.
 
ti vu said:
Pot and kettle thing.

However, if this is true about the talk with Ole, then it's telling about his peers' opinion on him. Also reflecting badly on Ole reasoning for playing because his status (big money signing). I don't believe unless proofed with sound/video interview.
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i do believe Maguire had to play due to the pricetag. Im more floored how weak Ole was if he actually said that to a squad member
 
Mmm-Qatarian said:
Maguire was playing well at the time though. Because he's been crap lately, people are now acting like Maguire has always been crap for us. This isn't true. His first two seasons at the club were largely good.

You can quite reasonably slate Ole for having favourites but not in that scenario. Why should he drop a player playing well at the time for a player who was completely shite at the time?

If this quote from Rojo is legitimate (and, of course, there is every chance that it has been exaggerated), he clearly has a crap mindset because he's using Maguire as an excuse for not being good enough to make the grade.
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Let's leave the Maguire first two season assessment aside for it's a forever big debate. If this is all real, however bad Rojo is, Ole to say what being written here about price tag status is very damning. Just tell Rojo he's shite. Here it's written as if Ole agreed what Rojo's assessment of Maguire, but scared to drop Maguire because Maguire was bought on big money under him.
 
ti vu said:
Let's leave the Maguire first two season assessment aside for it's a forever big debate. If this is all real, however bad Rojo is, Ole to say what being written here about price tag status is very damning.
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I'll be frank here, I do not buy that Ole said that. It'd be entirely unnecessary anyway; he could've simply told Rojo that Maguire was better than him and that's why he's not playing.
 
No way Ole said this to Rojo of all people. The same Ole who hardly ever played DvB despite spending good money on him?
 
Nah Rojo is talking Bollox. Maguire can be a right pain in the arse at times, but I sincerely doubt that ever took place.
 
No it's not deserved, it's social media at it's most despicable, which tbf is a pretty high.bar.

That being said I'm sick of watching him as a player for Man Utd. He is so slow to do everything. Southgate has a lot fo answer for as well not even giving Tomori a look in and persisting with his favourites. Club needs to be rid of Magure truth be told and England could do with being rid of waistcoat too.
 
Don't like Maguire but I don't believe that Rojo story for a second. I highly doubt the manager would trash talk his big money signing to a peripheral member of the squad.
 
Rojo was abysmal. I don't think he would lie but it could be that Ole told him that to fob him off. Though, it does show in the general regard Maguire is held in even amongst other players. It is supposed to be a cnut behind the scenes? No one seems to like him, and it is not because he is shit because many players are that.
 
I remember rojo being a bit of a hothead early on and then turning to utter shit. Had a few reasonable games, but man, he was the definition of average.
 
Maguire's first season here wasn't that bad but there were already concerning signs. He and Lindelof got absolutely dominated by Giroud in that FA Cup semi final defeat and if i remember rightly there was that 1-1 draw against Spurs right after Covid where we first witnessed how catastrophically slow he could be on the turn. 2nd season everyone on here was scapegoating different defenders because the defence still looked dodgy and we all know what happened last year.

It's been a very very poor signing overall and I'm sure he'll move to Spurs or Villa or West Ham in the summer and have a decent few years there. Hopefully we get nearly half the fee back.
 
Think with Maguire it's just a case of him not being as good as United 1st CB and captain should be. The pressure is too much and while he was solid in his first season and probably in 2nd as well (despite rough start to it), problems started showing more frequently since the start of last season. Going to a club like West Ham (who should bounce back next season and be much better than this year) would be beneficial I believe, can see him being much more comfortable there like he tends to be when playing for Southgate's England.
 
InspiRED said:
No it's not deserved, it's social media at it's most despicable, which tbf is a pretty high.bar.

That being said I'm sick of watching him as a player for Man Utd. He is so slow to do everything. Southgate has a lot fo answer for as well not even giving Tomori a look in and persisting with his favourites. Club needs to be rid of Magure truth be told and England could do with being rid of waistcoat too.
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How do you claim it’s not deserved and social media driven and then proceed to participate in it with your own criticism on an Internet forum? Real noble.

It is deserved, people take it too far but arseholes are everywhere, not just on social media. If he would show a little more humility and own up to his poor performances rather than deflect and say things like “everyone played bad last season” then I might show him more respect. He very much deserves his place on the bench.
 
BorisManUtd said:
Think with Maguire it's just a case of him not being as good as United 1st CB and captain should be. The pressure is too much and while he was solid in his first season and probably in 2nd as well (despite rough start to it), problems started showing more frequently since the start of last season. Going to a club like West Ham (who should bounce back next season and be much better than this year) would be beneficial I believe, can see him being much more comfortable there like he tends to be when playing for Southgate's England.
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I don't think the mental pressure got to Maguire, he's just not a high-line, press resistant ball playing defender. He can't pick out and make passes quickly enough and he's too slow to defend in an open space.

There is huge pressure playing for England, too. It's not just the captain that feels it. He looks better for England because they don't play with a high line and he has fewer instances where he's pressed or has to deal with a winger or striker dribbling the ball towards him without his teammates in close proximity, because they play 3 at the back with two defensive midfielders sitting in front of them.
 
Irwin99 said:
Maguire's first season here wasn't that bad but there were already concerning signs. He and Lindelof got absolutely dominated by Giroud in that FA Cup semi final defeat and if i remember rightly there was that 1-1 draw against Spurs right after Covid where we first witnessed how catastrophically slow he could be on the turn. 2nd season everyone on here was scapegoating different defenders because the defence still looked dodgy and we all know what happened last year.

It's been a very very poor signing overall and I'm sure he'll move to Spurs or Villa or West Ham in the summer and have a decent few years there. Hopefully we get nearly half the fee back.
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"Eric Dier just isn't shite enough. Who should we get?"
 
Anyone think that against Sevilla he was actually trying to open up his body, turn and take the ball forward but his control is so shit it just ricocheted off his foot and people assume he was trying to pass it?

The movement of his upper body for me suggests his intention was to turn and take the ball forward
 
They definitely lobotomized him in Greece or like one of those sci-fi films, swapped some random bloke's consciousness with his.
 
Harry is an absolute fine defender. He’s just not world class. We paid way to much and valued him way to hi just for being a large englishmen defender of the classic Premier League standards.

Him being large and slow with avarage passing skills doesn’t work at all with our keeper De Gea though.

Ten Hags first mistake when arriving to Manchester was letting Harry keep the captaincy…

Hopefully for both us and Harry we will go separate ways as soon as possible. I can absolute see Harry strive in a mid Premier League club defending lower where he doesn’t have to be on the front foot as much.
 
RedOrange said:
I don't think the mental pressure got to Maguire, he's just not a high-line, press resistant ball playing defender. He can't pick out and make passes quickly enough and he's too slow to defend in an open space.

There is huge pressure playing for England, too. It's not just the captain that feels it. He looks better for England because they don't play with a high line and he has fewer instances where he's pressed or has to deal with a winger or striker dribbling the ball towards him without his teammates in close proximity, because they play 3 at the back with two defensive midfielders sitting in front of them.
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Exactly.

With Maguire, like most players, looks better when you play to his strengths. However, we are no longer and sit back and counter attack team. So all his weaknesses are being exposed. He can't continue at Man United if, long term, our goal is to play in the opposition half and build attacks from the back.
 
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