Most liked posts in thread: Harry Maguire biggest waste of 85m ever!

As much as you want to be critical of him he is up there in that top tier of modern defenders, certainly not the best but if we moved to a draft type system like in US sports he would be on most managers lists as one of the top options to go for.

You can argue he maybe isn't at the level of some of the great defenders of the past but the simple fact is the art of defending has moved on, we don't really have those kinds of defenders anymore. Even VVD doesn't stack up as defenders now are much more about the lesss eye catching things such as crunching tackeles and its now about things like interceptions and actually being part of building up play. Its like how at FB someone like TAA couldn't lace Gary Nevilles boots as a defender, he isn't even as good as AWB but actual defending has become a secondary part of a FB's role. It's the on the ball, attacking part thats more important these days. As such you would probally pick TAA over AWB, Neville or most other RB's through PL history to play in todays game because his attacking play is so good and makes up for his defending being a little suspect

The price paid for Maguire was at the time a fair amount, any defender from that top teir list was going for around that much. I mean just look at the summer before, they were asking over £100mil for him so they got a discount. Bayern asked for £55mill for injury plauged Boetang, Spurs wanted £75mill for Toby. And just look at how much City paid for John Stones 4 years ago, how much city blew on all the other CB's that flopped, even Laporte who has perhaps been the best signing at CB since Kompany looks suspect positionally when the DM shield is broken cost £57mill. or look at Lindeloff and Bailly, two players who you could paint the postion they should be standing in on the picth in bright yellow paint and they would still struggle to get their positioning right who cost £80mill combined. There just isn't a massive number of quality CB's and after the striker are probally the most important position so their prices are all inflated

I don't feel any of the signings made under Ole have been bad or anymore overpriced than is normal when some of them are British players so have that premium that comes with them. James is probally the worst of them, he is raw and atleast at the moment really only has one way of playing, he needs to add more. But he was also the cheapest and a lighting quick player on the bench is never a bad thing to have. Now under Jose for sure there was alot of bad signings, too many of what he demanded were built around giving Pep a middle finger such as Sanchez (And Fred although Fred improved alot this seaon, although not to his price tag). It's a big reason why the board lost faith in him and stopped blowing silly money on players he wanted to keep him happy as he was just getting them and then falling out with them.

As for the waghes, DDG isn't on £350k. Its the typical paper situation where they are rolling in the poterntial bonuses he can earn because it makes better headlines. He is still on alot, supposedly £200-250k as a base wage and he could trigger all the bonuses but if he does thats money well spent. I doubt any club minds paying bonuses as it means somethings been acheived, all clubs would probally prefer all wages were bonuses even if it might mean paying more overall. Hendersons will also have some performane elements to it but the thing is he is one of the most promising young keepers around right now, other clubs have been sniffing around. Having him on the bench will push DDG to regain his form more than Romero (who the rumours have been for a long time that he has long term niggles that make playing week in week out at the required level a struggle) and we secure someone with a chance to be DDG's successor so we don't go through the same kind of issues we saw both post Schmeichel and post VDS. With Romeros wage llikely to come off the books and Sanchez now off there is more than enough room in the budget to make sure we didn't lose him

 

Was it really a poor season from him though. United went from conceding the 10th least goals (54) to the 3rd least (36). He was caught out a few times in the season but it was mainly due to his lack of pace. Good CB partnerships compliment each other and in Lindeloff he doesn't have partner who does that, Lindeloff in the English game is poor positionally which forces his partner to have to cover and when that CB doesn't have bags of pace it can expose him. And Lindeloff often having poor starting positions also means he struggles to provide cover. A partner who complements him (Which might be why it looked like Axel Tuanzebe was seemingly being blooded until his injury issues)

Should also be noted that Maguire is playing on his less preferred side because Lindeloff also prefers being the right sided CB. It may seem minor but in top class sport the minor difference between it can make a big difference.

 

There is nothing wrong with what he is doing though. He can't get to the cross so he sets himself for a second phase of play. If anyone is at fault for that goal it was AWB who let the player run past him in the first place or Williams who wasn't picking up his man.

And for a player so crap United defence was so much better this year despite having Lindeloff and his complete and utter lack of positional awareness in the English game (Which is why he losses out on almost every header even when the strike is a hobbit) so he can't be that bad.