First and foremost, Smalling is much quicker than Maguire. He was part of some real mean defenses in his time here. He was always one of our better defenders when he played for us.
I would hope any player we have could look through a folder and be able to interpret it without assistance. Especially considering it's something he's done before while coming off the bench. It's not all new info to him.
Would agree that Lindelof has looked better than Maguire re: usage of the ball over the last couple months. Maguire impressed with that intitially but Lindelof has outshone him there now. Lindelof still not a better defender than him though.
If the coaching is sound and mastered, there is no need for folders, just verbal instructions
I’ve said it before but it reminds me a lot of Rooney in his last seasons under Moyes/LvG where he was captain, and was constantly moaning at players for not being good enough/doing the right things when he wasn’t himself. Big difference is Maguire hasn’t ever shown the level Rooney once did.
So players don't need reminders of set piece routines and the like? Must be a lot of coaches who are trash then because it's a common thing.
They shouldn't need to in most cases if they are well coached. Set piece routines are pointless to us anyway
The fact that Pep wanted him means he would have definitely worked in CIty's setup. I feel united fans are over emphasizing his weakness.
Very true. He has no idea where his defence line is and keeps repeating the same blunder time and again. As captain you expect him to be the leader at the back, the first person to signal to the rest of the defenders when to move up or down, and these are very basic defence and captaincy attributes. Instead, he is the sleepy one who needs somebody to organise and warn him. That's his biggest weakness. But he is also elephantically slow to recover and definitely can't organise the other players. Not to mention the easy chance he wasted. It may sound absurd, but Smalling didn't have these weaknesses, and definitely Lindelof tries harder.
Actually the fact that Pep wanted him doesn’t mean that he would’ve definitely worked in City’s set up. Only looking at defenders, he had signed Mendy, Danilo, Chyhrynskyi, Caceres etc., none of them proved to be successful. And we don’t even know if Pep personally wanted him (and he definitely didn’t want him bad enough to get into the money race with us).
He has weakness and many have pointed out that but he is also not crap like some make him out to be.wtf?
He plays for United, we can all see his weaknesses, of course we are emphasising them.
Again the point is some people are acting as if he is a crap defender or just another Jones. How mnay rash tackes has he committed or how many mistakes has he made.
Good post. I read an analysis of our goals conceded this season and a huge no were due to errors (eg Tuanzebe v Arsenal). We have defended better (stats may disprove this) as DDG has pulled off far fewer saves than he normally does. We've not had many clean sheets but I think the defence is ok - it would help if we could play the same back four every game (See Leicester and Liverpool)
I highlighted your particular statement that was literally false.
Yes. Maguire is solid. 7 out of 10. Not worth 80m no doubt but if smalling had been playing he would have made at least a couple howlers by now.
Not to that extent, at least not me personally. I knew that he was slow and I didn't think that the relatively modern approach that Ole introduced this summer would be a good fit for him, but I didn't expect him to be so positionally inept as well. He is also significantly worse on the ball than I expected; in fact, I'm not sure that I even consider his ball-playing skills as something positive, while before the signing I knew that he was outstanding in 2 things — heading the ball away and moving it forward (via passing or dribbling).
Pep has done a horrible job at picking CB's for city so far.
