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5. Harry Maguire – Season Review

   Published Date: August 26, 2020

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 –

Maguire Aerial Duels
Harry Maguire won 77.64% of his Aerial Duels, 3rd most in Europe (Image from UtdArena)

Now that we’ve solved one of the main deficiencies, are our posts secured? The answer to this, is NO again. While our skipper’s arrival had some advantages, we haven’t seen the best of him yet. Apart from defending, Maguire was also known for his ball-carrying abilities and passing abilities at the Leicester City. In his stint with Red Devils till now, we have only seen glimpses of the same. Moreover, with his recovery pace being slow, and habit of going for tackles too fast have also cost us some goals. The only solution to this problem is to get a centre-back that complements Maguire’s abilities.

So, Overall Rating for Maguire would be – 7/10

 Ambitions for next season: 

The summer transfer window ongoing currently is of utmost importance if the club wants to establish a system that’ll win silverware and bring back the glory days. The club should prioritise a centre-back that will complement the Maguire on the field and get the best out of him. We’ve been linked to left-footed centre-backs all the time since the restart of the season but have lost Nathan Ake to the Manchester City, Gabriel to Arsenal, and Malang Sarr to Chelsea, making the matters even more difficult. If that wasn’t enough, United just doesn’t look passionate in the transfer market, and with no signings till now, we can only hope it doesn’t get too late.

Author: TUD Author