The Football Thread 2019/20: Barcelona will have 2-8 till next season to avenge this embarrassment

Preezy wrote:He's better than what United currently have (except for Lindelof), but I dunno... is he even any good?

I don’t see him every week but Salah made a mug out of him last season.

From what I've seen of him for Leicester and England I'd say that Maguire is substantially better than any defender currently at United - his biggest weakness is lack of pace but I think generally his positioning prevents that being too much of an issue. He's fantastic at playing the ball out from the back and that will stop our midfield from having to play so deep.

We'll be overpaying for him (although by most accounts the £80m fee is not all upfront, with £20m of that will be based on bonuses) but for me I don't think there's many attainable CB's in the league who are better than him. We could have gone abroad but most of the CB's we could have signed would have been a punt and we've already tried that approach twice with Lindelof and Bailly with mixed results. I also don't think we're just after him for his defensive qualities but also in the hope that he can bring some much needed leadership and organisation to the team.

It's easy to make comments like 'Salah made a mug out of him last season' but I've also seen Ashley Young put Salah in his back pocket for 90 minutes so I don't think one off performances against Salah are really much of an indication of a players quality.

Preezy wrote:He's better than what United currently have (except for Lindelof), but I dunno... is he even any good?

He's a decent PL player but he's not world class. Maybe he'll push on at United but he's not world class and you're paying more than Liverpool paid for VVD...

I feel United can do better for that money.

Tomous wrote:
Preezy wrote:He's better than what United currently have (except for Lindelof), but I dunno... is he even any good?

He's a decent PL player but he's not world class. Maybe he'll push on at United but he's not world class and you're paying more than Liverpool paid for VVD...

I feel United can do better for that money.

How much is Koulibaly?

I think VVD was a bit more of a risk than Maguire and 80mil isn’t as much to United as it is to Liverpool.

If I was a United fan I’d be very happy. I’m pretty happy City didn’t get him.

Ultimately, it's hard to compare one club paying a certian amount for player X however many years ago as, firstly, transfer values creep ever higher and secondly, they are inflated by a whole host of other factors. VVD's transfer was affected by the fact that everyone knew Liverpool were flush with cash after the Countinho transfer and Maguire's value has probably increseed the Leicester playing two PL clubs against each other.

Likewise, the fact that Maguire played badly against Liverpool, that one time, when he played for a mid-table team ultimately means very little as to whether he'll be a good or bad signing. That's one game out of 38 you've seen, and one you were inherently biased for as well.

Captain Kinopio wrote:I think VVD was a bit more of a risk than Maguire and 80mil isn’t as much to United as it is to Liverpool.

If I was a United fan I’d be very happy. I’m pretty happy City didn’t get him.

Not really VVD was one of the best centre backs in the league at Southampton, certainly the best outside the top 6 clubs at the time. I don't think anyone would say that about Harry Maguire at the moment, and I don't see how his big weaknesses-mobility and lack of speed on the turn, will improve. He's comfortable on the ball, good in the air and an aggressive, fearless player but i think he'll get exposed at the top level. For the money they're offering they should be getting a world class defender, or at least world class potential and it's hard to argue United are getting more than a decent, albeit consistent, PL centre back.

Dowbocop wrote:
fry87 wrote:
Dowbocop wrote:So to appraise Arsenal's current situation: we have gaping holes in the squad, no money, no CL, we've lost our best midfielder on a free, our captain and best defender has gone on strike, and our summer transfer business thus far has consisted of trying to buy half of Wilfred Zaha.

Was chatting to a friend who supports Chelsea yesterday and he joked saying that even with a transfer ban they've still managed to do more business than Arsenal!

Got to be tough for Arsenal fans when they're clearly in dire need of a fairly drastic overhaul and re-balancing of the squad.

All we seem to have done in the past eighteen months is lose the optimism that maybe things would change once Wenger went, because he did and they haven't

Who do you support by the way? I'll add you to the OP.

Just seen your message. I'm a Liverpool fan.

Yeah, it's hard to really see any progress having been made since Wenger left. Was always going to take time as the overhaul job was a big one, but they hardly seem to have done anything!

Tomous wrote:
Captain Kinopio wrote:I think VVD was a bit more of a risk than Maguire and 80mil isn’t as much to United as it is to Liverpool.

If I was a United fan I’d be very happy. I’m pretty happy City didn’t get him.

Not really VVD was one of the best centre backs in the league at Southampton, certainly the best outside the top 6 clubs at the time. I don't think anyone would say that about Harry Maguire at the moment, and I don't see how his big weaknesses-mobility and lack of speed on the turn, will improve. He's comfortable on the ball, good in the air and an aggressive, fearless player but i think he'll get exposed at the top level. For the money they're offering they should be getting a world class defender, or at least world class potential and it's hard to argue United are getting more than a decent, albeit consistent, PL centre back.

Problem is, there aren't a lot of world-class defenders out there and certainly not ones that are available and would want to join United. I think Koulibaly was the closest thing to that but Napoli wanted €120million supposedly, he's 2 years older and has never played in the PL so would have been a risk. Alderweireld may have been an option given his release clause but he's much older and realistically, why leave Spurs for United right now?

United have paid for potential twice now in Lindelof and Bailly and as I said earlier, we've had very mixed results with both of them - of all the young CB's we could have signed the only one who looks a sure thing is De Ligt and he's off to Juve. We also have Tuanzebe who is a great prospect on the cusp of the first team, so if it was about taking a chance on a player then we may as well take a chance on the three that we already have. I don't think signing Nikola Milenkovic or Ruben Dias would have solved anything in the short term.

I agree that Maguire isn't world class and I don't think he ever will be. However, the qualities you listed are ones that United are crying out for and he has them in abundance, plus he seems to have the sort of character to be a leader in a dressing room completely devoid of them. I agree on his weaknesses but with the right players around him they don't necessarily need to be an issue. He may well get exposed at the top level but realistically United aren't at the top level right now and it could take years to get there, during which time Bailly/Tuanzebe may well live up to their potential and replace Maguire in the team. I think he'll come in as a safe, dependable signing who will make an immediate impact on the first team and along with AWB will leave us with a much stronger defence going into next season.

Out of interest, which CB's outside of the top 6 do you think are better than Maguire?

Alright, Jamo, you've convinced me. Maguire to lead United to glory this season :toot:

Parksey wrote:That's one game out of 38 you've seen, and one you were inherently biased for as well.

I presume this is aimed at me? Anyway, I did mention that. Stop posting when you’re triggered man.

i just dont see the hype with maguire, he has never looked anything special to me.

He scored the crucial winning goal for England in the world cup semi-final.

Jamo3103 wrote:Out of interest, which CB's outside of the top 6 do you think are better than Maguire?

Outside the top 6, the Wolves centre backs, Schar at Newcastle and Ake at Bournemouth are probably the best centre backs. I'm not sure if they're all better than Maguire, (although all had very good seasons last year), but I was more making the point that when Liverpool signed VVD he was one of the best centre backs in the league at the time, and Maguire definitely isn't.

Issa Diop, at West Ham is possibly the one you'd look at as the most potential for the future given he's only 21/22.

Ploiper wrote:i just dont see the hype with maguire, he has never looked anything special to me.

u fukin wat m8?

Tomous wrote:
Jamo3103 wrote:Out of interest, which CB's outside of the top 6 do you think are better than Maguire?

Outside the top 6, the Wolves centre backs, Schar at Newcastle and Ake at Bournemouth are probably the best centre backs. I'm not sure if they're all better than Maguire, (although all had very good seasons last year), but I was more making the point that when Liverpool signed VVD he was one of the best centre backs in the league at the time, and Maguire definitely isn't.

Issa Diop, at West Ham is possibly the one you'd look at as the most potential for the future given he's only 21/22.

Ah I see your point now, United were interested in Diop but West Ham's asking price seems to be similar to Maguire and I think Diop is probably more of a risk at this point (Although equally there's potentially more reward to signing him). I'm a big fan of Ake, if United could sign two CB's this Summer I'd definitely take him as he can cover at LB too. Also really like Tarkowski at Burnley (who I believe Leicester are after to replace Maguire). I think Maguire still holds the edge over them for me at this stage though.

To be honest I'm at the point where I've invested so much time and money into watching Phil Jones and Chris Smalling playing on a regular basis that I'll take anything that might prevent that from being a regular thing next season. :lol:

Lewis Dunk going for £45 milly made me choke on my drink earlier today.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/Paul_Gascoigne8/status/1150314284687265793
[/tweet]

I strawberry floating love Gazza :lol:

Edit: Why won't this embed?

Just been fishing all I caught was animals caught a DOGfish CATfish seaHORSE DOGshark LIONhead&others FFS so I got on the bus I said how much 2Bournemouth he said £5 strawberry float that I walked2the next stop,I said how much now he said £10 you’ve walked the wrong strawberry floating way GAZZAx

Have you seen the video that was doing the rounds very recently where he's off his face and asking some random guy (who was trying to get a picture with him) if he had any cocaine? Very sad to see the state the guy gets himself into

That's so sad to see

That tweet is still absolute gold, though.

The Football Thread 2019/20: Barcelona will have 2-8 till next season to avenge this embarrassment

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