UNITED ACADEMY
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- Aug 14, 2018
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- Erik ten Hag
There are many ways to defend. Some centre backs attack the ball and the player by getting in to duels all the time. Maguire is one of them, but Varane is not.
A comparison of ground and aerial duels attempted per game:
Maguire 9.2
Lindelof 5.9
Varane 5.4
You can clearly see that Maguire is another type of player. He likes to attack the ball/player.
Note that this includes offensive duels on corners so it is not only defending. Roughly 60% of Maguire's aerial duels are offensive, compared to 70% for Varane and 80% Lindelof.
Yes he wins a good % of them, 77% in la liga and 67% in CL this season and is good in the air, but he doesn't challenge a huge amount. Of course it depends on the league, team, etc, but we can at least say that at Real Madrid, he doesn't win many aerials. Then it could change if he plays for United.
Duel attempted is useless in this discussion if La Liga players avoid to go duel contest with him.You can’t use the same point on what players did in European comp because Varane‘s numbers are still miles better than Lindelof.