Maguire and Lindelof Partnership

I can't believe we finally have a staple back 4 who are all solid and in their place.

No wingers inverted into full backs. No CBs who are allergic to the ball in their feet.

Goodbye Smalling, Jones, Valencia and Young era.
 
LJJT said:
Maguire + any one is just the way to go. Absolutely amazing today. £80m was cheap for Maguire
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Always feels like this whenever a player plays that well hey. Any PL player in the mix for MOTM most games is worth 80m in this crazy market.
 
el3mel said:
I can't believe we finally have a staple back 4 who are all solid and in their place.

No wingers inverted into full backs. No CBs who are allergic to the ball in their feet.

Goodbye Smalling, Jones, Valencia and Young era.
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Shaw didn't look too good today, needs to step up his game before Young is considered at LB instead.
 
freeurmind said:
They looked fine. Some worrying moments especially when Chelsea overloaded but it was good to see Maguire being so vocal and taking charge of situations. Long may it continue.
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The worrying moments came from when the midfield lose the possession cheaply & when azpilicueta made overlapping run while Rashford didn’t track him back which give him massive free space to cross the ball. 2 our CB both done brilliant today.
 
Thinking that we might have a settled back 4 gives me a massive lob on
 
Considering that our midfield is nowhere to be found at times they performed amazing!
 
El Zoido said:
Feels like a solid partnership, but they need a quality DMF in front of them.
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They do if we are going to play 4-3-3. Cannot play that formation without a top DMF, our defense is going to get killed on counters. It was telling that Ole played more of a diamond today, and still we struggled at times (like: first 15 minutes). Our midfielders also need to stop losing ball so much. Pogba and McT both lost way too many and that will also be a huge problem for 4-3-3.
 
Imagine watching your CB partnership actually look good for once, and coming straight on here saying "I hope Lindelof makes a mistake soon so Tuanzebe can replace him". Some serious weirdos on this forum. I thought they were both great today, the pressure on them in the first 60 mins didn't really have anything to do with them.
 
A very good start. And not just for the pairing but for the whole defence. A couple of shaky moments but generally very good.
 
Regulus Arcturus Black said:
Tuanzebe’s the new toy and the café loves new toys.
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I don't know what people are seeing in Tuanzebe that gives them a reason to believe he's good enough for United. He's never appeared anything more than average in the games I've seen him play, plus he didn't exactly get rave reviews from Villa after his stint on loan with them.

I'd be more confident in Smalling filling if and when needed.
 
I'm happy Tuanzebe is on the bench and is going to be given a chance, but Lindelof was very good today and I don't know how on that performance people want to out him :lol:
Most of our defensive troubles came from no defensive support from midfield, the CBs didn't put a foot wrong today
 
They looked at ease knowing they could trust each other with the ball, something Lindelof couldn't do with his other partners, but the defensive test will come when we face some pace and quality, something Chelsea had neither of.
 
They were good today but it's just 1 game. Hopefully we will have a settled pair this season, it helps defense a lot when you have settled back 4.
 
Big Ben Foster said:
I've never understood this obsession the caf has with playing players in unfamiliar positions.
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You could say the same about successful managers who have played players in unfamiliar positions with great success. Pep is an example. Our previous managers also played wingers as fullbacks, 10s as wingers, strikers as midfielders, midfielders as strikers.

We need a DM - Matic is past it unfortunately - for Pogba and McT to play to their best. Fred isn’t a DM per se, and he is yet to find his feet in the English game (far too inconsistent with even the basics for a midfielder). Seems Ole is still finding his preferred position for Pereira.
 
OnlyTwoDaSilvas said:
At least for this season, I'd be happy with Tuanzebe and Smalling as the 2nd choice pair in the EL group games and League Cup. Smalling is limited but dependable certainly when it comes to availability. I don't think any of Rojo, Bailly, Jones and Smalling will be here beyond next summer, though I think we'll struggle to sell any of them except Smalling.
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We still need some backup though. Maguire, Lindelof and Tuanzebe can’t cover for whole season. There could also be some suspension/injuries as well. I expect we sell at least 2 of them, but not all 4.
 
L1nk said:
The first half was tetchy but I think that had more to do with the gaping holes our non existent midfield left for Chelsea, once it all settled down they commanded well and did everything right I thought, no signs of being extremely slow or anything that people were worried about.
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We sat deep quite a lot.
 
Random Task said:
I don't know what people are seeing in Tuanzebe that gives them a reason to believe he's good enough for United. He's never appeared anything more than average in the games I've seen him play, plus he didn't exactly get rave reviews from Villa after his stint on loan with them.

I'd be more confident in Smalling filling if and when needed.
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With you on this but he is young so could certainly improve with experience but the notion he has higher ceiling than Lindelof doesn't sit right with me but if Lindelof fails to perform upto expectations this season with Maguire then I could certainly see United again in for Center back for big money rather than trusting any of our Current options.
 
RedRonaldo said:
We still need some backup though. Maguire, Lindelof and Tuanzebe can’t cover for whole season. There could also be some suspension/injuries as well. I expect we sell at least 2 of them, but not all 4.
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I'd expect another centre back to be bought in the next year or two as cover and to compete with the main two, along Tuanzebe.

I like Smalling but he doesn't seem to fit what Ole wants to do, the remaining three are usually injured, and their form on the day is a bit of a question mark.

IMO, Ole certainly could have got a lot of use out of Daley Blind.
 
Halftrack said:
Yeah, agree that it's weird. I get wanting to see Tuanzebe take the step up, but Lindelöf was as good as Maguire today.
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No, he wasn't. He didn't look out of place, but Maguire did most of the defending between the two.
 
Looks a good partnership. We were lucky not to concede a goal, but I thought we defended our central area well. The shots from Emerson were dangerous but in most circumstances a defence will prefer to concede shots from such a tight angle.

Hopefully Tuanzebe will keep on improving and displace Lindelöf at some point.
 
Great start and if they continue to build on that start together, could be a very good partnership. Thing to remember though was last season, the Leicester game last season - seemed like "oh look what a great partnership" but, it was short lived. Still have concerns with Lindelof as he seems to have a mistake in him. Last season was good improvement from his first and yes he is better on the ball but, he became shakier when we tailed off last season. I know he is good on the ball and that's important for how Ole wants us to play but, moments like the missed header for Emerson's shot off the post, is what concerns me - hopefully will be unwarranted as the season goes on.
 
They looked very composed for a partnership that has maybe done 4 training sessions or so together. What i love about Maguire is he puts his head in where it hurts but can also play football.
 
They looked very good together. Lindelof can't lead but next to Maguire he'll come on a lot. But: would Lindelof be an option sitting in front of the back 4? Maybe Jones/Tuanzebe would also come on next to Maguire.
 
They definitely looked good yesterday, especially when you consider it's practically a new defence. Maguire had only a week training at most with the team, and hadn't played any friendlies for us. Wan Bissaka obviously played a lot of pre season but also still new to the set up too. So it's an encouraging start, albeit not perfect, and I'm excited to see how it develops. I do think they will need more midfield cover at times though.
 
Thank god Vic got a competent partner at CB, I think he and Maguire as a partnership had a good start and can only improve as they build the understanding. This and the addition of Wan Bissaka makes us so much more solid. A shame we didn't bring in a DM, midfield was bypassed a bit too easily today and a better side will punish that.
 
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