Defensively? Not even close. And anybody who has watched the three of them over the last few years should have known that. I was a Maguire fan and quite liked us signing him, but regularly said during the transfer saga that he wasn't as good as Smalling defensively.
Maguire and Lindelof Partnership
- Thread starter luke511
- Start date
They tried to outdo themselves tonight, negatively. One does not know what the other does. They are just making it up and hoping for the best, it isnt a partnership.
I think it's fair to say we've been robbed (again!). Maguire is worth a third of what we paid
Irrelevant. If he managed to block the cross better we wouldn't have the problem to begin with.
I think you robbed yourself. Leicester weren't even trying to sell him but you insisted that you must have him. He looked good playing alongside a very calm & capable Jonny Evans but without that kind of partner he can be a bit shaky.
I don't blame Leicester obviously, you did your business very smarly and ruthlessly.
Maguire is a good player but we had far more important issues sadly. Our club is run by clowns.
Just don’t think they make sense as a partnership. Neither of them really provide what the other needs to really prosper: they both have certain skill sets, I just think they overlap too much.
It is a terrible partnership. They don't seem to communicate with each other - neither is particularly a physical defender; they're more ball playing defenders. One of them has shit heading abilities. Both are slow.
Probably the worst constantly used CB partnership in the last years. Has any United CB partnership in the last 20 years conceded more goals than these 2 clowns?
It's the British core bs we tried to rush. We would also have paid 50m for Longstaff if someone didn't say enough was enough.
I find it hard to convince myself that we wouldn't be better off with Evans and Smalling with Daley Blind as back up than this pair.
I don't think them two, as a pair, contributed to a bad form as much as some people would have you believe. Our midfield is notoriously terrible at defending from the front, we invite a lot of pressure and confusion in our defense through bad decisions of our midfield. Can't blame the attackers for it, it's their job to go at oponnents and risk losing the ball that way but we don't recover it quick enough and often there are poor passes that invite a lot of pressure. It's hard to judge two center backs in such a system, you can give us van Dijk and whoever else is the flawor of the month to be our 2 CB's, if we didn't fix the midfield they would look average or poor as well.
Two good defenders who simply don't work as a pair.
If not Smalling, and if not giving Tuanzabe an extended run in the team to see if he can do the job, then we need to buy another CB who is fast and good at defending to pair with Maguire. Soyuncu would be ideal but theres no chance we'll be signing him given what we paid for Maguire and Leicester being a better team than us.
Lindelof is a good backup, he's not someone we can count on week to week.
Lindelof is a good backup, he's not someone we can count on week to week.
Continuing to persist with this pairing is one of the worst managerial mistakes I have seen in a long time. There haven´t been a shred of evidence of this partnership improving even the slightest since Ole started this experiment. Ole really needs to get his head out of his behind and start making hard choices with this team but this partnership isn´t really a hard choice it´s an obvious one.
I personally hope we're keeping a eye on the young Portuguese CB at Lille, Tiago Djalo. Still only 19 but is lightening quick, strong in the air and fantastic on the ball. He looks a player that fits the profile of the commanding CB that I believe we should target, and we might even be able to purchase him from Lille for a reasonable fee. He came through the ranks at SCP in Portugal and was bought by Milan ahead of United and city according to Di Marzio. Was then sold to Lille for a cut-price deal which I found very strange. Sometimes watching Djalo I think he could even play as a #6 due to how good his long passing is.
He probably still needs another 30 games until he realises they may not be working well together. It sounds as a joke, but i am serious. Ole isn't a fast thinker and someone to change things if they don't work.
Smalling and Maguire would have been better pair. Maguire as the ball player and Smalling as the 'stopper' and also the one with pace to recover runs in behind us. Lindelof n Maguire are too slow to be a pair. We haven't looked solid all season.
Smalling and Lindelöf lookt better last season then Maguire/Lindelöf this season.
A lot of talk about who should play next to Maguire, the question should be who should play next to Lindelöf.
Maguire havnt impressed me at all this season, what his good at? Tell me, because I cant see it, dont care what he did before Man UTD or for the NT, this season Im having a hard time to see whats special about him.
I don't think there's been much between them either but we paid £80m for Maguire and the current manager signed him so he's not going anywhere is he? Lindelof will have to make way. Or we switch to 352 and play both with Wan Bissaka / Tuanzebe as the third CB.
Would be nice to see a 352 with Wan Bissaka, would prolly take some games before he feel natural in that position but think it could work, but something tells me that it wont happend and Rojo/Jones would get the last CB spot if switched to 352.
Think both Maguire and Lindelöf looks better in a 352 then in a back 4.
You don't want Maguire and Soyuncu. If memory serves, I seem to remember we tried that pairing a few times and it wasn't particularly impressive. Both are good defenders in their own right, but I don't think they would make a good partnership - I think you need someone better at organising the defense.
Evans is the glue that holds the defense together, and it's no coincidence that whoever we pair with Evans looks rock solid (even a 36 year old Wes Morgan). So ironically, who you actually need to buy is Jonny Evans.
Evans is the glue that holds the defense together, and it's no coincidence that whoever we pair with Evans looks rock solid (even a 36 year old Wes Morgan). So ironically, who you actually need to buy is Jonny Evans.
Best post on this thread. Individually they are both good players but too many of our goals are down to daft mistakes elsewhere on the pitch.
Maguire is good CB, but no way near to world record fee and thats the problem with our tranfers in general. Expectations are too high and players usually fail to reach them. Same goes for AWB, Fred, maybe even Pogba and so on.
The biggest and most obvious problem of our defence is Lindelof and always has been. He has no strong abilities whatsoever. He is average with the ball, weak in duels, weak in positioning, he is slow, he is not a leader. For some reason our PR department did some cool videos or gave him cool nickname to make him look good (so he almost won POFY after the worst defensice record in our PL history), but he is no way near PL level and in Championship he would fail even more. His contract was one of the biggest mistakes Ole did so far and he did plenty of mistakes already.
This partnership doesnt work and never will, but Lindelof will never work with anyone. Take Smalling back and try him with Maguire, we can rotate them with Tuanezbe or we can use Rojo in 3/5/2 formation, sell Jones and Lindelof ASAP and we can move forward.
The biggest and most obvious problem of our defence is Lindelof and always has been. He has no strong abilities whatsoever. He is average with the ball, weak in duels, weak in positioning, he is slow, he is not a leader. For some reason our PR department did some cool videos or gave him cool nickname to make him look good (so he almost won POFY after the worst defensice record in our PL history), but he is no way near PL level and in Championship he would fail even more. His contract was one of the biggest mistakes Ole did so far and he did plenty of mistakes already.
This partnership doesnt work and never will, but Lindelof will never work with anyone. Take Smalling back and try him with Maguire, we can rotate them with Tuanezbe or we can use Rojo in 3/5/2 formation, sell Jones and Lindelof ASAP and we can move forward.
No they don't compliment each other as a pair. Both are of the same type of players, and you need one to attack the ball and stick their head in, and throw their body on the line, like Vidic used to do.
I like Milenkovic and I think he could be the one who would be the best partner for Maguire.
I like Milenkovic and I think he could be the one who would be the best partner for Maguire.
If there is a better individual for us we should always try to improve in any position including CB, but it feels like buying a CB now is fixing the part that's not broken and ignoring the gaping hole in midfield. We don't have an Erikssen in our team, and that type of player would hugely improve us, someone to get the things going and who can keep possesion, make smart passes under pressure etc.
Honestly don't think Eriksen want's to come here. He wants to win trophies.
Odd way of going about it by being at Spurs all the time. Even if we're poor in form and seem to do everything wrong we're always closer to a trophy than Spurs.
Anyway, it don't need to be Erikssen but that type of player. Who knows, maybe we could have a go at Coutinho from Bayern at the end of the season. Yeah I know he played for the rivals but I don't think he'd care. PL proven, adaptation period not needed... Just someone to consider.
Well you see that's why he wants to leave and why all of Spurs greatest players eventually went to us when we were winning things or Real Madrid. The exception is Harry Kane who seems oddly content.
Agree about Coutinho though depending on his fee. Couldn't care less he played for Liverpool since he was class for them.
We need a completely new midfield trio, if the mannagement can't see it, they really are not fit for purpose.
I don't think Kane is content, I just don't think anyone looks at Kane and thinks "I'll pay 250 mil." and that's what would've take, unless his contract comes in the last 2 years.
I also don't know if we should go for Erikssen, but I think he'd come if Spurs miss out on CL football this season. It would sure be sweet to get one over Mourinho. My point is, creative midfielders are not easy to find or are already in top clubs, Modric and Kroos at Real, Pjanic at Juventus etc. Erikssen and Coutinho seem like the most obtainable options given the situation we're in.
The management think Sean Longstaff is the answer to our midfield woes. This is who we have in charge of our team, so don't expect too much.
It’s classic Lindelof, he doesn’t do anything to affect the play. If he was actually a determined defender he’d be out quicker and block that.
God alone knows what the two of them were doing for their disallowed goal.
Lindelof is picking up a random space where there was no danger and Maguire both wasn't communicating nor seemingly knew what was going on around him.
Lindelof is picking up a random space where there was no danger and Maguire both wasn't communicating nor seemingly knew what was going on around him.
Thought they were good today but I realised when Maguire was hobbling that we're a centre back injury away from things getting really bad. Rojo and Bailly have horrendous injury records and can't be trusted, Axel is getting a few knocks and hasn't had a big run of games and we also have Phil Jones on our books. That is grim as hell.. We need these two to stay fit for the entire season otherwise we could be in big trouble.
Correct, can we recall smalling as back up and for rotation. Hes better than the rest of the back up mob,
They are both fecking shite. Actually did alright tonight though when you consider how shite we are
Could have been a penalty when Lindelof headed Wolverhampton player head in penalty box. Then Maguire ball watching for their disallowed goal.
I was about to say I've never seen a penalty being given for that, but I do recall seeing that once actually although I can't remember the game. So, I think it is more than silly for a ref to give a penalty for it, highly unlikely, even if Lindelof did do kind of a weird manoeuvre there.