In 2018-19, Manchester United slumped to a sixth-placed Premier League finish, conceding
more goals all of the teams above them, but also Wolves, Everton and Leciester City directly below.
In response, the club spent the summer trying to improve their defence. And to do so,
they made Harry Maguire the most expensive centre-back in the history of British football.
Four years later, Maguire is no longer an automatic starter at the club and is the subject
of frequent social media mockery. So, what happened?
On a superficial level, it’s possible to chart Maguire’s waning
status through his declining appearances. In his first season he started all 38 Premier
League games. In his second, 34. In his third, during which Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked
and replaced by Ralf Rangnick he began 28. And, most recently, in Erik ten Hag’s first
season at the club, he made just eight starts and eight substitute appearances.
Maguire is club captain at Manchester United and has a contract which runs at least until
the summer of 2025 and on wages of around 190,000/week, and yet his value to the
club is clearly diminishing. To add a layer of confusion,
Maguire has retained his place in the English national team during this period,
for whom his performances have been much higher. What’s the problem at Manchester United, then?
The big contrast is a lack of stability. For England, he’s played under the same
coaching staff continuously, enjoyed the very public support of head-coach Gareth Southgate
and more often than not, played alongside John Stones, who is also one of his close friends.
At club level, it’s different. He joined Manchester United at a time when they were
in a state of transition, both in the sense of style and personnel. Between 2019 and the
present day he has played under three different coaches, each with their own tactical imperatives,
and alongside a changing cast of teammates. It’s been challenging.
The Athletic’s Adam Crafton reported that upon arriving back at the club in 2021,
“Cristiano Ronaldo’s personality overwhelmed many of those who
had previously been growing in prominence at United”. Naturally, that would include Maguire.
In addition to which, The Athletic also revealed that during Ralf Rangnick’s reign,
“Ronaldo made clear to the German… that he would prefer the team did not include Maguire.”
Clearly, the atmosphere at the club has changed several times since Maguire joined,
as have the voices in dressing room. Not that it has always been easy away from
the pitch. In the summer of 2020, during a family holiday to Mykonos, Maguire and his brother spent
two nights in police custody and were later found guilty in court of offences including attempted
bribery, repeated bodily harm and violence against public employees. He was given a suspended prison
sentence but has always denied all charges. Nevertheless, the saga was hardly ideal
preparation for his second season at Manchester United.
But the bigger issues have been technical and, in time, confidence-based.
According to The Athletic’s Carl Anka, Maguire is at his best when operating in his favoured,
left-side centre-back position. “During his first year, his aggressive
man marking style meant he dominated his 1v1 duels on the ground and in the air.”
And, while Maguire has never been especially quick, his instinct for pushing out of the
defensive line to make an early tackle disguised that flaw. In addition to which,
playing from the left also suited his ball-carrying abilities and when in possession,
allowed him to protect the ball with his left shoulder as he moved up the field.
It also helped Manchester United compensate for their ball-progression issues in midfield, and the
conservative pairing of Scott McTominay and Fred. But the trajectory of his United career seemed
to change for good in the Autumn of 2021. He was dispossessed deep in his own half
for the first goal in a 4-2 loss to Leicester City. The following week,
he was culpable for three separate goals in a 5-0 humiliation to Liverpool at Old Trafford.
It became a vicious cycle. Manchester United were tactically dysfunctional
and often outnumbered in midfield and during counter-attacking situations. Consequently,
Maguire often became overwhelmed. His confidence dropped and with it, his sense of timing in
tackles deteriorated and never really recovered. The difference in Maguire, then, hasn’t been his
playstyle, which has always been proactive, but the timing of his actions. As if to make
the point, he ended that dreadful 2021 run of games by being sent-off in a 4-1 defeat
to Watford for a badly-timed tackle, in what would be Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s last game.
Adding to the issue is the fact that a return to his favourite left-side centre-back role
seems unlikely. Current head-coach Erik ten Hag prefers his centre-backs to play on the
side of their dominant foot, believing that it helps them receive the ball and presents better
passing angles- both crucial to a manager who wants to build up play from the back.
But ten Hag prefers centre-backs who are strong at defending the outside channel in
their position. When it comes to right-footed defenders, stopping an opponent running past
them on the wide channel requires them to step their dominant foot across their body. Equally,
when defending backwards with players in the channel, a right-side dominant
defender will often try to hook the ball away with the outside of their right foot,
which is a much more difficult action. This season, ten Hag has pointed to both as
reasons for playing Maguire on the right-hand side of defence. And he actually began the
season as a first-choice, playing alongside Lisandro Martinez. That was in spite of ten
Hag’s insistence on a higher defensive line which further exposed Maguire’s lack of acceleration.
Poor performances against Brighton and Brentford cost him his place,
and despite injuries to Martinez and Raphael Varane, he wouldn’t regain it.
Timing issues and positional awkwardness remain traits of his game. A disastrous Europa League
performance against Sevilla might have been the season’s low point, but nine yellow cards in 27
all-competition appearances describe a player clearly ill at ease and short on self-belief.
Behind Martinez and Lindelof on the right, and Martinez and even Luke Shaw on the left,
he now finds himself – because of form and his head-coach’s tactical preferences - as a
third-choice in both centre-back positions. From there, it’s difficult to see how
Harry Maguire can regain his reputation at Manchester United.