07 Oct 2020 11:35:23
Just out of interest, is there anyone who posts on this site who thinks Maguire is any good?


1.) 07 Oct 2020
07 Oct 2020 12:03:11
I don’t think he’s as bad as most are making out, he’s in extremely bad form and possibly the problems in the summer have taken his concentration away but last season he was quite good, obviously not worth anywhere near what we paid for him but a vast improvement on what we had before.

There’s always one player that gets all the flack, it’s just his turn, he will turn it around I’m sure.


2.) 07 Oct 2020
07 Oct 2020 12:30:47
I do. He’s not VVD or Laporte and is clearly going through a bad patch of form, but the improvement in defensive stats and displays since his arrival says more about his ability than a few high profile gaffs. That’s not to say he’s not been DS so far this season.

I’ve said it before, but his fee was out of his control. If he’d been £20m, the focus on him would be so much less. Big fee, big club, few mistakes and probably incorrectly given the captaincy - the bloke doesn’t stand a chance.


3.) 07 Oct 2020
07 Oct 2020 12:36:47
The problem with Maguire is that his limitation should have been well know

- lack of pace
- gets caught forward
- poor organisation
- suspect concentration

For £80m we could have bought a much much better defender. What we have is a decent EPL defender that was expected to be world class.


4.) 07 Oct 2020
07 Oct 2020 12:39:16
He wasn't worth 80 million but he isn't that bad. I think with everything that has happened before the start of this season he has been badly affected. He is in terrible form at the moment but will improve.
Our defence last season was one of the best with 13 clean sheets in the premiership.
Maybe he needs taking out of the firing line for a few games to regain some confidence.


5.) 07 Oct 2020
07 Oct 2020 12:45:27
He wasnt bad at Hull, wasnt bad at Leicester either. What has gone wrong for him at United? Is it the pressure of being captain straight after walking in the door? Is it bad form? Is it his Greece adventure affecting him? Or is it something more that is happening behind closed doors? Dressing room is split as we are hearing. Is maguire the fall guy?


6.) 07 Oct 2020
07 Oct 2020 13:03:33
He is in awful form.
He was not this bad last year. But i fear like a lot of our players that trend will continue under these coaches.

He is not alone in looking worse since he arrived and continues on a downward spiral.
He needs to be taken out for a few weeks instead of trying to play through it.


7.) 07 Oct 2020
07 Oct 2020 13:17:43
Forget the fee, we had our pants pulled down. I wouldn't pay 80m for a prime Rio Ferdinand. It is what it is.

Maguire is a good defender, but not a great one. His game has too many limitations. That said some of them such as positioning and reading of the game can be improved. He'll never get any faster, yet Paolo Maldini was never quick. Vidic wasn't quick, in fact Torres had him on toast a few times. You don't need to be fast to be a good defender. It helps, but it's not vital.

I think at the moment though he is in terrible form, his head has not come back from Greece and for his own sake he needs to step out of the starting 11 for a while.

Maguire can be a good player for us, unfortunately he is in bad form and we are a shambles defensively. There doesn't seem to be any shape or plan, we push a high line but without a sweeper keeper or any pace in our central defenders that causes too many problems. The balance is out of whack.

Maguire is great at playing out from the back, carrying the ball forward and winning aerial challenges in both boxes. If he can improve his reading and positioning he will be a very good player, maybe even a great one.

People remember Rio as he was toward the end of his career, yet positionally he was suspect early on in his career, right up until his mid to late twenties he was relying on his pace to dig him out of trouble rather than just reading the game well and being in the right place at the right time. But he developed that skill and was very good at it from around 28-34. So there is definitely hope that Maguire can develop and improve. Will he very much depends on him and they training that the coaches use to help him.


8.) 07 Oct 2020
07 Oct 2020 13:11:59
Yes, he's good, just not as good as people expect based on what we paid for him. He's unlikely to ever be a truly world class player. He's not a Rio Ferdinand or John Terry, more like the guy you play alongside them when you can't get 2 guys like that, a Gary Cahill.

I was very against signing him, but that was because of the price not his ability. He has improved our defence, no question, just not as much as a player that expensive should.


9.) 07 Oct 2020
07 Oct 2020 13:31:29
Good enough for a team that wants to sit back deep and play on the counter attack.

Thats why he looked good at times last season especially when rashford was going through his good patch and scored some crucial goals for us.

But in reality if we want to become a top team that dominates the ball posession and press high with our exciting forward players, we are going to have to play a high line and with maguires pace and agility lacking, i don't think we will successfully achieve with him in our back 4.

Laporte and van dijk are the gold standard at the moment because they have the physical attributes to get themselves out of a hole and they are very good on the ball. Maguire is neither and that is the fact of the matter.


10.) 07 Oct 2020
07 Oct 2020 14:28:37
Maguire has been playing for years and hasn't improved to the level you expect to be a United defender.

Maybe he is just just not that good and I don't know what people were thinking when they decided to axe Smalling and buy Maguire.

If united want to move forward then Maguire shouldn't be in the first 11.

Difference between Rio and Maguire is that Rio had a braim and Maguire doesn't.

The most laughable thing i seen in my life is him pulling down Shawww.

How do you even manage to do that. 😁😁.


11.) 07 Oct 2020
07 Oct 2020 12:14:43
Good question, could do it in a poll lol.
I was opposed to his signing even before we got him. I remember discussing it with Ed 001 here, where we agreed that either Dias or Milenkovic would be better and cheaper. But we go stuck with him. Take a cue from Pep, when he sees his current players at some position can't cut it, he brings in reinforcements, and until they are brought he finds an alternative in house solution (fernandino playing CB) ; but at utd we are stubborn. Seems the policy is as long as we paid big money for them, we MUST persist and eventually they will come good, like Pogba and now Maguire. Something must change!


12.) 07 Oct 2020
07 Oct 2020 15:10:32
Seems like a rough consensus that he's decent but out of form and Utd should be buying better, especially for the money we paid.

What is also developing as a running theme are some serious deficiencies with the management and coaching, particularly the inability to gplay to the strengths of the players we havet to get the most out of them.
It's been going on for years now we have some really good players who are being made to look bad because they aren't being used correctly. We're talking about Maguire here but for me the prime example is Mata. What a waste of a talent when for me he has a lot to offer if he was used correctly. Solksjaer's in flexibility is really hindering his ability to get results. There are many ways to play football and a big part of a coaches job is to work out how to get the best team playing in the best way depending on their talents and abilities.


13.) 07 Oct 2020
07 Oct 2020 16:35:08
People remember what suits them. Maguire is good because we had a good defensive record last year, like he was the only factor of this record.
Yet when we had an even better defensive record in Mourinhos second year the defensive pair was useless, they needed changing and Mourinho wanted another CB and you all agreed.

A defensive record might mean something or absolutely nothing. If that was the case Lindelof is good too and people who protect the defence are good, yet we all agree they are not.

Maguire has not a single quality good. He is physical but for his height is not even top in the air. He is nowhere near top with the ball, people see him making rides when there is no pressure and oppositions are 20 metres away and say "oh a ball playing defender". The truth is when there is even a little pressure he struggles, he is giving the ball straight to opponent.

He is slow and Vidic was slow too but he was a lot smarter and knew the art of defending, his positional was so much better and that's the reason he very rarely exposed because of pace.

If Lindelof was as physical as Maguire he would be twice (at least) the player Maguire is. He always finds himself in difficult situations against fast opponents in open space or against 2 and 3 opponents, because of Maguires lack of understanding and bad positioning, and he has not the physicality to cope with that, sometimes its not possible to do it anyway.
He is a ridiculous sighning, i would say the same if the price was 40 millions.

Paying 80 just make this worst and more difficult to part ways with him.


14.) 08 Oct 2020
08 Oct 2020 00:32:56
Dias at 65m, never played in this league might not turn out well, remember Mangala? Same with Milenkovic. not saying Maguire is great but isn't sometimes it better to have the devil you know?