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Victor Lindelof Sweden flag

2021-22 Performances

View full 2021-22 profile

5.4 Season Average Rating
Appearances
35
Clean sheets
8
Goals
0
Assists
2
Yellow cards
5
Status
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Why he heads ball to give so many corners to oppsoite team when he could clear many of them in a clean way or pass it to his team mates

He could be a grreat success if he moves to Spain/Italy
 
A-man said:
Lindelof and Maguire have similar aerial stats so far this season and have made more or less the same amount of attempts.

Maguire is better in the air, but Lindelof has improved in that area and Maguire have declined a little.

Aerial duels from this season incl all games played for United (both have played 16 matches):

Lindelof
Total 47 (2.94/game)
Won 33 (2.06/game)
70%

Maguire
Total 46 (2.88/game)
Won 33 (2.06/game)
71%
Click to expand...
I do think Lindelof has improved this year, he's showing more bravery and aggression which has always been my biggest issue with him.

He just simply doesn't and cannot take the same duels that Maguire or Varane can due to his size and more importantly his style.

Anyway, he played a lot better last night and the crunching tackle in the middle of the pitch was a joy to see. If he played like that more often he wouldn't always be having these debates.
 
Adam-Utd said:
It's not a myth. I watch every game and I see it with my own eyes.

If you're honestly trying to tell me Lindelof is as good as Maguire in the air, then I have the number of a good optician you might like to see.
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I watch most games too, but i still couldnt tell you if fred or mact have completed the most number of passes. I can have a hunch or a feeling, but this will be largely affected by other things.
Statistics on the other hand doesnt care about sentimental or psychological factors. Or do you mean that the stats are wrong?
 
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Andersons Dietician said:
How has this guy not received two likes for these posts? Well structured, well mannered, well researched and putting forth some well thought out and interesting opinions. I’ve seen terrible posts getting likes before and this is not one of those.

I can agree with large sections of it, but as someone who has come around to Lindelof I do believe there are certainly occasions where he is physically bullied out-with just aerial duels. He can certainly be stronger in my opinion but I find he is better sweeping up than being the aggressor and given Varane hasn’t really had a chance to sustain performances surely Lindelof has been by far the best defender this season.

I actually think he was better last season than Maguire mainly as stated Maguires positioning is dead awful. Anyway, new manager, fresh start for many. We will see where they are all at in 6 months time.
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Thank you. Thats kind.
 
A-man said:
Lindelof and Maguire have similar aerial stats so far this season and have made more or less the same amount of attempts.

Maguire is better in the air, but Lindelof has improved in that area and Maguire have declined a little.

Aerial duels from this season incl all games played for United (both have played 16 matches):

Lindelof
Total 47 (2.94/game)
Won 33 (2.06/game)
70%

Maguire
Total 46 (2.88/game)
Won 33 (2.06/game)
71%
Click to expand...

Maguire has declined a lot. We're talking about a player who has been among our worst starters this season and has been deservedly dropped at times

Having said that, in the league it looks like this

c74071aa688e9d7b00d599b1d18caddd.png


So even in the poor performances, Maguire is still our best in the air and with 1.2x more 90 mins under his belt, has won 9 more and lost 2 more headers

Lindelof has clearly improved in the air from a couple of seasons ago, at this point it would have to be one of his stronger areas other than passing

If we look at his last 365 days Maguire averages 3.8 won headers per game. So we can clearly see that we arent talking about a comparison when hes playing well

https://fbref.com/en/players/d8931174/Harry-Maguire
 
TSE123 said:
I watch most games too, but i still couldnt tell you if fred or mact have completed the most number of passes. I can have a hunch or a feeling, but this will be largely affected by other things.
Statistics on the other hand doesnt care about sentimental or psychological factors. Or do you mean that the stats are wrong?
Click to expand...
Stats also are easily manipulated or not recorded in a realistic way.

What is a duel exactly? a fair 50/50 jump from a stand still? somebody challenging somebody else from a further away distance?

Who exactly decides whether it's a good duel or a bad one? it's a useless stat for me.

In my opinion Maguire tries to get his head on a lot more crosses or long balls than Lindelof. He will try to effect the attacker even if he's not going to get to the header first. That means he effectively loses the duel, but actually does enough to make the striker miss the target.

This will still look bad on a stat sheet though, does that make sense? anyway, he's doing a good job as a the 3rd choice at the moment.
 
Ekeke said:
Maguire has declined a lot. We're talking about a player who has been among our worst starters this season and has been deservedly dropped at times

Having said that, in the league it looks like this

c74071aa688e9d7b00d599b1d18caddd.png


So even in the poor performances, Maguire is still our best in the air and with 1.2x more 90 mins under his belt, has won 9 more and lost 2 more headers

Lindelof has clearly improved in the air from a couple of seasons ago, at this point it would have to be one of his stronger areas other than passing

If we look at his last 365 days Maguire averages 3.8 won headers per game. So we can clearly see that we arent talking about a comparison when hes playing well

https://fbref.com/en/players/d8931174/Harry-Maguire
Click to expand...
I agree, Lindelof has improved his aerial game and Maguire has declined. But the statement that Lindelof has improved his % because he doesn’t challenge so much is not true. In the stats you show we can see that Harry challenge slightly more (4 aerials per games vs 3.7) and if we use whoscored who has a different definition of aerial duels, Lindelof has challenged slightly more than Harry. The one who is behind in the stats is Varane with 55% but he has not played many games so small sample size, plus I assume it takes some time for him to adapt to the more physical game in the PL.
 
Adam-Utd said:
Stats also are easily manipulated or not recorded in a realistic way.

What is a duel exactly? a fair 50/50 jump from a stand still? somebody challenging somebody else from a further away distance?

Who exactly decides whether it's a good duel or a bad one? it's a useless stat for me.

In my opinion Maguire tries to get his head on a lot more crosses or long balls than Lindelof. He will try to effect the attacker even if he's not going to get to the header first. That means he effectively loses the duel, but actually does enough to make the striker miss the target.

This will still look bad on a stat sheet though, does that make sense? anyway, he's doing a good job as a the 3rd choice at the moment.
Click to expand...
Aerial duels are stats that are not 100% in their definition. To further complicate, it’s a mixed of offensive and defensive aerials. About 40% of Maguires aerials are offensive while the same number for Lindelof is 20%. In the end however it roughly tells you which players who go in to many aerial duels and how good they are in the air. Last season Tarkowski, Maguire and Zouma were top 3 at challenging in the air. The season before it was Tarkowski, Maguire and van Dijk. Most people would agree that those four players are, or at least were, good in the air.
 
Adam-Utd said:
Stats also are easily manipulated or not recorded in a realistic way.

What is a duel exactly? a fair 50/50 jump from a stand still? somebody challenging somebody else from a further away distance?

Who exactly decides whether it's a good duel or a bad one? it's a useless stat for me.

In my opinion Maguire tries to get his head on a lot more crosses or long balls than Lindelof. He will try to effect the attacker even if he's not going to get to the header first. That means he effectively loses the duel, but actually does enough to make the striker miss the target.

This will still look bad on a stat sheet though, does that make sense? anyway, he's doing a good job as a the 3rd choice at the moment.
Click to expand...
Agreed regarding the stats.
BUT my point from the beginning was that favouring Maguire “because Lindelof is soooo much weaker” is just not a good enough explanation (at very least not this season). Whether maguire is 2% better or worse aerially is just not enough to rate one and not the other.
My opinion is that Maguire (at his best) is better in the air than Lindelof. This season thats not been the case. BUT with Lindelof you get a positionally intelligent CB who has the passing ability of many CDMs.

also regarding the number of challenges made by Lindelof and Maguire: i have a theory, unproven and impossible to prove, that Lindelofs positioning often means that he doesnt have to tackle as much.
look at Aaron WB who needs to slidetackle 100 times every game. It still doesnt mean his a good defender, he just loses his positioning all the time. Same problem with maguire.
Having said that, i do agree that Lindelof often covers rather than challenges. There are many pros and cons to this. Some obvious ones are that when you challenge as last man you always risk losing the 1on1. Whilst by slowing the attacker down it may mean other defenders get back, but on the other hand it may mean you are not close enough to block the shot. Often its easier to call the right decision afterwards than it is before.
 
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TSE123 said:
Agreed regarding the stats.
BUT my point from the beginning was that favouring Maguire “because Lindelof is soooo much weaker” is just not a good enough explanation (at very least not this season). Whether maguire is 2% better or worse aerially is just not enough to rate one and not the other.
My opinion is that Maguire (at his best) is better in the air than Lindelof. This season thats not been the case. BUT with Lindelof you get a positionally intelligent CB who has the passing ability of many CDMs.

also regarding the number of challenges made by Lindelof and Maguire: i have a theory, unproven and impossible to prove, that Lindelofs positioning often means that he doesnt have to tackle as much.
look at Aaron WB who needs to slidetackle 100 times every game. It still doesnt mean his a good defender, he just loses his positioning all the time. Same problem with maguire.
Having said that, i do agree that Lindelof often covers rather than challenges. There are many pros and cons to this. Some obvious ones are that when you challenge as last man you always risk losing the 1on1. Whilst by slowing the attacker down it may mean other defenders get back, but on the other hand it may mean you are not close enough to block the shot. Often its easier to call the right decision afterwards than it is before.
Click to expand...
I'd say Maguire is a lot more aggressive and prefers to either tackle or foul, where as Lindelof usually chooses to screen, then drop off and cover. As you say though styles can effect stats in different ways, doesn't always mean good or bad.

That's why I prefer to just take them at face value and watch it in context of the match. It's quite clear to me that Maguire is more effective in both boxes and in high balls.
 
Give me this version of Lindelöf alongside a Varane who can stay fit and I'll feel better about our defence than I have done for a long time.
 
Very impressive performance today. My MotM.

I think this new way of playing will suit him nicely. He likes to press aggressively to win the ball back high up the pitch, which is very important when the team plays like this, and did that very well today.
 
dronesoul said:
Very impressive performance today. My MotM.

I think this new way of playing will suit him nicely. He likes to press aggressively to win the ball back high up the pitch, which is very important when the team plays like this, and did that very well today.
Click to expand...
I thought he was good but for me Fred was the best player on the pitch by far
 
It does feel like a Varane/Lindelof partnership would suite this system best. His ability on the ball is still underrated. I think that'll become more and more apparent as the season progresses.
 
Adam-Utd said:
It's not a myth. I watch every game and I see it with my own eyes.

If you're honestly trying to tell me Lindelof is as good as Maguire in the air, then I have the number of a good optician you might like to see.
Click to expand...

Lindelöf is better than Maguire at everything bar heading maybe, but his heading is not far behind. A much more complete and modern CB than Maguire. Easily.
 
He was fantastic today. Clearly thrives under this system. Lindelöf - Varane should be our first choice pairing.
 
He was terrific and if Lindelof continues to play with that aggression and desire to put pressure on the attacker a lot of my previous complaints about him will vanish.
 
A very different performance from him, on the front foot being aggressive rather than his more passive approach.
 
Looked far more aggressive and positive in his defending, trying to win the ball far up the pitch instead of the usual just get back and defend the box routine. Good signs
 
TSE123 said:
Haha
I knew that was one of your agendas (moaning about the CBs)! ;):)
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I had to self regulate my trips to this thread earlier in the season because I couldn’t handle the sloppiness. But he’s been very good the last few months in fairness
 
dronesoul said:
Lindelöf is better than Maguire at everything bar heading maybe, but his heading is not far behind. A much more complete and modern CB than Maguire. Easily.
Click to expand...

The whack Maguire took to stop the attacker getting his header in front of De Gea is an example of where Maguire is still far better in the air, especially at his best. Its about his strength and bravery too. But its mostly on display when the ball is in the air and he has to position and fight with an attacker to make the ball. Even though he's not at his best he was still doing that today
 
Liked how he played today, very aggressive and proactive. He was good with the ball too, consistently carrying the ball forward and playing good passes.
 
ivaldo said:
It does feel like a Varane/Lindelof partnership would suite this system best. His ability on the ball is still underrated. I think that'll become more and more apparent as the season progresses.
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Thought his passing range was really good. Nothing too fancy but made some quick incisive passing forward. He’s obvious weakness is his heading ability and strength but he’s a very tidy player.
 
dronesoul said:
Lindelöf is better than Maguire at everything bar heading maybe, but his heading is not far behind. A much more complete and modern CB than Maguire. Easily.
Click to expand...
he was great today I have to say. There’s been a noticeable improvement in his aggression and it’s paying off.
 
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