At any moment, one struggling mega-fee signing will be the subject of the most intense argument. The goal for every player is to avoid being the main character in the play.
With football opinion online increasingly extreme, every good or bad action is warped into social media ammunition, foot soldiers announcing their loyalty in the replies. Which is a long-winded way of saying that it is time for the Great Harry Maguire Debate of 2022.
Manchester United haven’t kept a clean sheet in the Premier League without Maguire since he joined the club. It is a nice statistic that suggests supremacy but mostly just passes comment on the consistency of his availability. Since he arrived in August 2019, Maguire has started 152 competitive matches for club and country, or one every six days without a break.
That record without Maguire suggests that, even if he is out of form, he remains Manchester United’s best option. The transfer fee is a complicating factor because, although Maguire played little part in it, it hangs around his neck and his alone. An oversimplification takes place: if you are the most expensive defender in the game then you must also be the best defender in the game (or at least very close). Maguire isn’t that and nobody – least of all he – has ever claimed as much.
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In part, this is down to perception. Maguire is a very fine ball-playing central defender, but one whose frame – 6 ft 4 in and a stocky build – rails against that image. When Maguire steps out of defence and sidesteps an opposition player, in the wrong light it can look a little like a wardrobe being pushed down some stairs.
But there are inescapable problems too. Maguire has been caught on the ball too often for anyone’s liking. He has committed regular fouls and has an unfortunate capacity for them to look very scruffy and so worthy of yellow cards. Manchester United’s defence over the last 10 months are like one of those reaction-time tests, people dashing around and over each other to press the light on the wall and snuff out danger but each press merely shifting where the light appears next. United have nine clean sheets in 44 games over that period.
One thing on which everyone should agree is that Maguire has been very good at international level. He was a surprise pick by Gareth Southgate in 2017, became one of the most important members of the 2018 World Cup squad, was named in the Team of the Tournament at Euro 2020 and is now England’s highest-scoring defender of all time. For the “England only ever play bad teams” brigade, Maguire was man of the match against Germany, a fixture that brought with it double doses of pressure and national hysteria.
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But then Southgate created a system in which he believed Maguire would flourish. The first competitive match for which England’s manager picked a back three was Maguire’s debut against Lithuania and he stuck with that shape. Southgate also operates with at least one (and often two) holding midfielders. It reduced both the onus on Maguire to step out of defence to meet opponents and the likelihood of him having to chase players towards his own goal, exposing his relative lack of pace.
None of this is to say that Maguire could not have done more; everyone can. But any debate about the individual must centre on the collective. There is still no defensive midfielder to protect him at Manchester United. They have still not played with a back three during his time in Manchester. It is as if United have looked at the conditions in which their central defender has flourished and deliberately shunned them.
This is surely the crux of Maguire’s stop-start-stress Manchester United career. Buying a player is so much more than the recruitment of an individual. You are buying – or you should be buying – the perfect component for your system. The price paid should not just reflect your current or potential ability but how well your club believes you will fit into that system. That is what Liverpool and Manchester City have done so well. That is what Manchester United have done so poorly, if they have done it at all.
Over the last 10 years, United have signed 45 different players for their first team. How many of those have increased their reputation at Manchester United? Bruno Fernandes for sure. Robin van Persie and Zlatan Ibrahimovic perhaps, although they were already very well-regarded. And that’s it. Far more common is the pattern of high fee and great anticipation followed by comparative disappointment: Aaron Wan Bissaka, Jadon Sancho, Fred, Anthony Martial, Donny van de Beek, Romelu Lukaku, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Morgan Schneiderlin, Memphis Depay. This is not an exhaustive list.
What does that suggest? That Manchester United’s recruitment has been haphazard. That they have targeted players because of who they are (or whether their rivals also want them) rather than because they know where and how they will fit best. That for too long they lacked an identifiable system that got the best out of those players. That the working environment has left new signings playing catch up. That the mania surrounding the club makes catching up doubly difficult. That Manchester United have become a black hole for their marquee signings.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/zBtVJZF
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