What do people see in Lindelof?

What is your opinion on Lindelof?

  • Good enough to be first team regular

    Votes: 34 9.2%

  • Should be a squad player and his first team spot upgraded with a new CB

    Votes: 268 72.2%

  • I’d like to see an existing player such as Tuanzebe get the chance instead

    Votes: 14 3.8%

  • Sell, we can do better surely?

    Votes: 36 9.7%

  • I can’t make a decision until the midfield is addressed

    Votes: 19 5.1%
  • Total voters
    371
I'm not a fan. Seems too passive. Not got the character. Wonder if he's called the iceman and that's part of the issue.
 
Personally i think hes one of the worse CB in Utds history. Weak, meek and easily bullied. One of the first players out of the door for me personally. Id rather play phil jones.
 
golden_blunder said:
He is carrying the CBs at the moment. Or at least he was till he was injured. I personally think we would have won the final in normal time had he been playing.
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He wouldn't have prevented Lindelsoft from conceding their goal. We've been shite at set pieces even with Maguire in the side. They are both not united quality centerbacks
 
United in sin said:
He wouldn't have prevented Lindelsoft from conceding their goal. We've been shite at set pieces even with Maguire in the side. They are both not united quality centerbacks
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That's because Maguire is the only one capable of dealing aerial threat, compare to United CB in the past when both Rio and Vidic were really good in the air. I'd suggest you to watch sevilla game last season, look how pathetic Lindelof's jump was for sevilla's first goal. The cross wasn't even that high but he failed to stop it and Luuk De Jong scored an easy tap in.
 
I think if we buy another quality CB this summer, Lindelof becomes first choice backup, and would probably play 20-30 games or so a season.

I think he's perfectly capable for that role in the title winning squad. If we buy another CB, one of Tuanzebe or Bailly will be sold I think, and barring injuries we would rotate between Maguire, Lindelof and a new signing.

For me, he's a good player for that type of role. Dependable, not injury prone, not amazing but doesn't have you on the edge if your seat with worry like Bailly either.
 
I thought he could be our Ronny Johnsen of current times, i.e. a very good CB alongside a world class partner. But now I think he would never be as reliable. And he doesn't have a world class partner. It would be great if he could become another Henning Berg or David May.
 
If Maguire had a Carvalho beside him he would look 4 times the player.
 
United in sin said:
Why does an 80 million signing need another to make him look better? Can the same be said about other actual top class center backs? Koulibaly? Sergio Ramos? The Dutchman at Liverpool?
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Always found koulibaly overated myself

it’s not about having someone better than them, it’s about having a pair that compliments each other. With Lindelof I feel he doesn’t bring enough to the partnership but i feel if Maguire had a better partner, not necessarily better than him, better than Lindelof then he would be much better too
 
Halftrack said:
Definitely overrated at his best, and he's regressed over the last couple of seasons as well. Maguire is easily as good as him at his best, and better than he is now.
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Definitely. I couldn’t believe it when they wanted 70m for him. Dodged a bullet there I think.
 
Both central defenders Mourinho bought are not required quality.
 
I've been through all the league goals this season we've conceded.

12 of the 44 goals we conceded were from set pieces. 1 additional from a direct free kick and 4 more from penalities. Below is a breakdown:
​
Conceded TypeTotal%
Open Play​
27​
61%​
Set Piece​
12​
27%​
Direct Free Kick​
1​
2%​
Penalty​
4​
9%​

When Lindelof started, we conceded 10 set piece goals from 31 conceded. That's a percentage of 32%.
When Lindelof didn't start (9 games) we conceded 13 goals, 2 from set pieces. That's a percentage of 15%.

I have got the links to each matches highlights, but detailing who is at fault for each goal would be... hideous. But I think you get the picture from the above. It's imperative that we get someone who can actually defend high balls, Lindelof simply cannot.
 
RedSky said:
I've been through all the league goals this season we've conceded.

12 of the 44 goals we conceded were from set pieces. 1 additional from a direct free kick and 4 more from penalities. Below is a breakdown:
​
Conceded TypeTotal%
Open Play​
27​
61%​
Set Piece​
12​
27%​
Direct Free Kick​
1​
2%​
Penalty​
4​
9%​

When Lindelof started, we conceded 10 set piece goals from 31 conceded. That's a percentage of 32%.
When Lindelof didn't start (9 games) we conceded 13 goals, 2 from set pieces. That's a percentage of 15%.

I have got the links to each matches highlights, but detailing who is at fault for each goal would be... hideous. But I think you get the picture from the above. It's imperative that we get someone who can actually defend high balls, Lindelof simply cannot.
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It's not just high balls that's the problem. During set pieces the players literally wrestle themselves in to positions, it's when football is as most physical. Lindelof is extremely weak in these circumstances.
 
Lindelof is a good player. Not a great player, but a good player and should be a valuable squad player. The problem is he's our second best defender when he should be our 4th best. Tuanzebe is showing promise but Ole doesn't trust him enough to get a solid run of games in and while Bailly is an exciting player, he's an absolutely horrible defender. He makes a lot of last ditch tackles and blocks that look amazing, but that's because he's so out of position. We definitely need a new centre half to partner Maguire, but Lindelof is good as a squad player. It's bailly that has to go...
 
I think he makes one too many errors defending set pieces. We seem to be in trouble on every set piece which is worrying.

If we don't sign a CDM this summer, we cannot go another season with him, we need someone who will be dominant.
 
RedSky said:
I've been through all the league goals this season we've conceded.

12 of the 44 goals we conceded were from set pieces. 1 additional from a direct free kick and 4 more from penalities. Below is a breakdown:
​
Conceded TypeTotal%
Open Play​
27​
61%​
Set Piece​
12​
27%​
Direct Free Kick​
1​
2%​
Penalty​
4​
9%​

When Lindelof started, we conceded 10 set piece goals from 31 conceded. That's a percentage of 32%.
When Lindelof didn't start (9 games) we conceded 13 goals, 2 from set pieces. That's a percentage of 15%.

I have got the links to each matches highlights, but detailing who is at fault for each goal would be... hideous. But I think you get the picture from the above. It's imperative that we get someone who can actually defend high balls, Lindelof simply cannot.
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The data is almost correct but the conclusion questionable.

We have conceded 3 set piece goals (Spurs, Aston Villa, Leicester) without Lindelof in 9 matches, that is 0.33 per game.
Conceded 10 setpiece goals with him in 29 matches, that is 0.34 per game.

We have conceded the same amount of setpiece goals with or without him. But since we have conceded so many more goals in total when he hasn’t played (44% more per game) the percentage you showed is high.

Lindelof is not the strongest in the air, but this seems to be an organisational problem.
 
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Spineless and gutless is the worst kind of a defender and sadly Lindelöf is both. He lacks all the things that make a defender great. Ole needs to get his head out of his ass because it is still baffling how that guy plays all of our games.
 
RedSky said:
Disagree. What you're doing is being selective with the data to suit your own argument. What i've done is used all of the data to draw a conclusion.
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Not sure what you mean, could you point it out? What data are selective? I used the official data from the matches and calculated setpiece goals per game.

With Lindelof we have conceded
1.05 total goals per game
0.34 setpiece goals per game


Without Lindelof we have conceded
1.51 goals per game
0.33 setpiece goals per game
 
I think he's been OK, but he's probably the single-most replaceable player in our best XI. I think Bailly and Tuanzebe have both given as many above-average performances this year with far fewer appearances when paired with Maguire. However, with the latter two, you obviously have injury questions (though Bailly has improved greatly there, in my opinion).

Given the resources we have, if we're not committing to upgrade the RCB position this summer, we're not doing it right.
 
Hasn't Lindelof been playing with a back injury?

I'm sure I heard this being said in a press interview. Or have a got this wrong?
 
golden_blunder said:
Always found koulibaly overated myself

it’s not about having someone better than them, it’s about having a pair that compliments each other. With Lindelof I feel he doesn’t bring enough to the partnership but i feel if Maguire had a better partner, not necessarily better than him, better than Lindelof then he would be much better too
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I don't particulalry rate Maguire that highly but this is true. That's why I think we should use Lingard as leverage and get that Diop from WHUM. I feel like he has all the physical characteristics we need - we don't really play out that well from the back anyway so I don't think we'd lose anything from a possession standpoint + he's arguably better aerially than Maguire, young, faster and aggressive. And not being quoted at £50m plus.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
I don't particulalry rate Maguire that highly but this is true. That's why I think we should use Lingard as leverage and get that Diop from WHUM. I feel like he has all the physical characteristics we need - we don't really play out that well from the back anyway so I don't think we'd lose anything from a possession standpoint + he's arguably better aerially than Maguire, young, faster and aggressive. And not being quoted at £50m plus.
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this is the problem though. We do not play well out of the back but we still insist on playing out from the back.
 
He's not great - just better than what we have apart from Maguire. But really good centre backs are expensive and hard to find.
 
There is no aspect of his game that he does particularly well. I can't think of one commanding performance from him. The only things of note from him are ducking out of headers, losing his man and being outmuscled on a regular basis.
 
Foxbatt said:
this is the problem though. We do not play well out of the back but we still insist on playing out from the back.
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Agreed. I think with us we play around the back (because we have a back 6 given how deep McT ad Fred generally are) but to play out of there and into our forwards, who leave a huge gap in midfield is really difficult.

I honestly think it's just something Ole thinks the fans want to hear, like pressing, when you can see we're not well drilled at it. I have no issue if we choose to stop trying to play out from the back but I'd rather we didn't say we do it and then watch us struggle at it for multiple seasons.
 
Foxbatt said:
this is the problem though. We do not play well out of the back but we still insist on playing out from the back.
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That's true of nearly every team that builds out from the back. I absolutely hate it. My point of view is that you should only do it to change things up and decompress the defense.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
I don't particulalry rate Maguire that highly but this is true. That's why I think we should use Lingard as leverage and get that Diop from WHUM. I feel like he has all the physical characteristics we need - we don't really play out that well from the back anyway so I don't think we'd lose anything from a possession standpoint + he's arguably better aerially than Maguire, young, faster and aggressive. And not being quoted at £50m plus.
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The same Issa Diop who couldn’t get in West Ham’s team this season because he wasn’t as good as Craig Dawson?
 
RedSky said:
I've been through all the league goals this season we've conceded.

12 of the 44 goals we conceded were from set pieces. 1 additional from a direct free kick and 4 more from penalities. Below is a breakdown:
​
Conceded TypeTotal%
Open Play​
27​
61%​
Set Piece​
12​
27%​
Direct Free Kick​
1​
2%​
Penalty​
4​
9%​

When Lindelof started, we conceded 10 set piece goals from 31 conceded. That's a percentage of 32%.
When Lindelof didn't start (9 games) we conceded 13 goals, 2 from set pieces. That's a percentage of 15%.

I have got the links to each matches highlights, but detailing who is at fault for each goal would be... hideous. But I think you get the picture from the above. It's imperative that we get someone who can actually defend high balls, Lindelof simply cannot.
Click to expand...
It's a good reference but I think that's too simplistic I don't think substituting Lindelof alone will solve the set piece problem.

He's definitely a weak link in the defense but there are 8-9 players in the box when defending. I mean for the kicker to have the accuracy to target Lindelof every time we'll that would mean every team has a primer Beckham kicker.
 
United in sin said:
Why does an 80 million signing need another to make him look better? Can the same be said about other actual top class center backs? Koulibaly? Sergio Ramos? The Dutchman at Liverpool?
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Koulibaly isnt top class. Sergio Ramos is always partnered with the best CBs like Walter Samuel, Fabio Cannavaro, Pepe, and Raphael Varane at Real Madrid. Surely you agree those names i mentioned are far better CBs than Linda?
Only Van Dijk could transformed whole defence by his own, but he like Jaap Stam is an anomaly.
 
United in sin said:
Why does an 80 million signing need another to make him look better? Can the same be said about other actual top class center backs? Koulibaly? Sergio Ramos? The Dutchman at Liverpool?
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a good partnership can clearly be better than its constituent parts - that’s basics, and can be applied to any player.

Maguire though, has proven to be a top quality CB, no matter who he has played with - so it’s an irrelevant question you ask.
 
Gopher Brown said:
The same Issa Diop who couldn’t get in West Ham’s team this season because he wasn’t as good as Craig Dawson?
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Please do some basic research. Even more so because the whole issue with Lindelof is the partnership with Maguire. Diop replaced Ogbonna, not Dawson.

Regardless of if you rate Diop specifically, whole point is we need pace and aerial ability in our CBs - we don't need a technical player at all. You could sign Zouma and we'd be much better than we are with Lindelof even though Lindelof is definitely a better all round player in my opinion.
 
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