It turns out that a team misses an £80m central defender when they aren’t on the pitch. Who knew?
Ever since becoming the most expensive defender in football history when joining Manchester United from Leicester City in 2019, Harry Maguire has frequently been accused of not being worth his price tag.
When watching him, it is easy to see why: he is proficient at most things, accomplished in certain aspects, but not really exceptional at anything. He is a typical meat and potatoes English defender, a player who will give a 7/10 performance every week with the odd 6 or 8 display now and again, but never a 3 or a 9.
But then it isn’t Maguire’s fault that Leicester deemed him to be worth that fee to them, or that United were happy to pay that figure. He was 26 when he joined United, a peak age for a central defender, had enjoyed an eye-catching World Cup 12 months before and was worth more simply due to the “English player premium”.
On night’s like this, or in the rescheduled fixture against Liverpool a fortnight ago, you can see that he is worth every penny. He might not do things that one might expect an £80m footballer to do, but his team are considerably less secure when he’s not in it.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer‘s decision to name him United captain soon after his arrival was an admission that his side were short of leaders and that the new kid in the dressing room had the personality and character to do the job.
When he doesn’t play – which is a rarity given his near faultless fitness record – there is a communication vacuum in the United backline. That much was apparent when Villarreal took the lead from a set-piece in Gdansk.
Luke Shaw was supposed to be marking Villarreal’s main man, Gerard Moreno, but inexplicably let him have a free run at Dani Parejo’s pinpoint free-kick and Victor Lindelof was not strong enough to hold the Spanish international off. After ghosting into space, Moreno had the relatively simple task of diverting the ball beyond his international colleague David De Gea from close range to score his 30th goal of the season.
It was all too easy and might have been prevented had Maguire been present, given his aptitude for marshalling those around him into the right place and his propensity to get his head on anything threatening to cause his goalkeeper any trouble. Maguire’s leadership qualities alone are worth a chunk of that transfer fee.
Soon after half-time, Maguire’s absence was apparent again, when his replacement, Eric Bailly, attempted to clear a cross in his own six-yard-six with an overhead kick, only to miss the ball completely and get bailed out by the covering Bruno Fernandes.
It was the exact type of moment that showed why Bailly is a cult hero at Old Trafford but unlikely to ever become a club legend. Central defenders aren’t meant to perform acrobatics in their own penalty area, Eric.
In extra-time, Lindelof almost committed a catastrophic error too, smacking an attempted pass out to Aaron Wan-Bisska off Bailly’s back to inadvertently setup a Villarreal attack inside United’s own penalty area. They just about got away with it, Fred blocking a Moreno effort that looked to be hitting the target.
Both Lindelof and Bailly would be accomplished squad players for a top side but it is certainly debatable whether either should be commanding a starting place for a club with United’s ambitions. Maguire would benefit from having a more dependable partner alongside him.
As revealed by i earlier this month, Villarreal’s impressive stopper Pau Torres is on United’s summer wishlist and he enhanced his reputation with a solid display in the final, notably blocking a goal-bound Edinson Cavani header.
United, as they have done so often this season, improved after going a goal behind and dominated the game from the 46th minute onwards. Attack was the best form of defence and Villarreal’s hopes of taking advantage of their reshuffled backline were drastically reduced.
Although it’s unlikely Maguire would have made the difference in the penalty shootout, he was most certainly missed on the night. Gareth Southgate will be crossing his fingers that he can prove his fitness in time for Euro 2020.
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from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3vq790d
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