Image from Goal.com |
Key Stats:
- Name: Harry Maguire
- Date of Birth (Age): 5 March 1993 (27)
- Signed: 5 August 2019
- Appearances: 55 (38 PL)
- Goals & Assists: 3 & 3
- Clean Sheets: 24 (13 PL)
- Contract till: 30 June 2025
Analysis:
Harry Maguire became the most expensive defender signing when he signed for Manchester United in August 2019. With £80 million transfer fee, everyone hoped Englishman to have an instrumental impact on the team. So, has Maguire been worth it? Probably not. But, has Maguire been awful and a total loss? Again, no. The 27-year-old had quite a rollercoaster season with patches of good and bad. To sum it up, he has been ‘more than decent’ for us.
Maguire has invited a lot of criticism as well as a lot of praise. Starting on a positive note, let’s analyse how he has transformed our defence. The first and foremost stat that displays improvement is the number of goals conceded by our team. United conceded54 goals in Premier League 2018-19, and 36 goals in Premier League 2019-20. This demonstrates the effect Maguire had on our defence. Moreover, one of the United’s major problems pre-Maguire was losing out on aerial duels and physicality, which led teams to target us on set-pieces and net some easy goals. Here are some stats that prove the same –
Harry Maguire won 77.64% of his Aerial Duels, 3rd most in Europe (Image from UtdArena) |