So We’re Still Lying About Harry Maguire?

Harry Maguire has never gotten a fair time in the media since he completed his move to Manchester United in 2019. The former Leicester defender, 26 at the time of joining United, became the most expensive defender on the planet once the deal was completed. This is a tag he holds till this very day, and it’s unfortunately a tag that has tainted his time at the club and the overall perception of his abilities as a player.

Certain media narratives have been driven since he joined United, which made it very difficult for Maguire to ever get treated fairly. The unfortunate nature of modern media means a lot of big accounts peddle narratives for interactions, which consumers take for gospel without ever truly stopping to analyze the suggestions for themselves, leading to a whole host of people developing false beliefs on certain players.

Since Maguire joined United, the main narrative, crazily enough, has been that he simply isn’t a good defender. Not that he’s only a decent defender. Not even that he’s only a good defender. No, the narrative has been that Harry Maguire is awful, unable to pass or progress a ball, and unable to play in a high line. So let’s take a look at those statistics before we dive into anything else.

Dispelling the Maguire Myths:

Prior to joining the club, the season before his arrival, Manchester United were in disarray defensively. The team had kept just seven clean sheets in the league, the 15th lowest tally in the division, and conceded 54 goals in total. The year Maguire came in, the defensive record improved tenfold. Despite playing under a manager who the media tried to suggest had no tactical ability, Manchester United conceded the fewest goals from open play in the entire division, while also overall conceding the third fewest goals in the league behind runaway champions Liverpool and Manchester City.

United also kept the most clean sheets in the whole of Europe in all competitions, again, a remarkable achievement for a team who had no coaching staff at the club during the season and no tactical instructions what so ever (I hope I’m doing this right).

During Harry Maguire’s first two seasons at the club, he kept more clean sheets than any other outfield player in the league with 25 clean sheets. During his second season at the club, by February, he was the most creative defender in the league, being involved in the most goals, whether it was directly or during the buildup, than any other defender in the division at center-back. Maguire’s best trait is his ability to drive out from the back of the ball into space.

He is a progressive centerback, whether that’s through progressing the ball with passes or through dribbles. Again, this is a narrative the media will try and suggest isn’t true, but visually and statistically, that just isn’t a fair suggestion.

Again, another narrative is that Harry Maguire cannot play a high line, even though he has played a high line for Manchester United. Per Pauly Kwestel, under Erik ten Hag, by March 2024, United on average played a higher line by 4 and a half meters with Maguire on the pitch as opposed to without. His anticipation and aggression make up for what he lacks in pace when it comes to pressing high in a high line, and his ability aerially is an asset that can’t be ignored at the same time.

It is unfair and disingenuous to have evidence visually that’s backed up statistically and still try and pedal a narrative to suggest otherwise. There is no doubt Harry Maguire isn’t perfect; no defender is and he certainly has his flaws, but the current suggestions that he’s never played well for United despite being their most consistent performer for 3 of his five seasons at the club is one of the most hilarious examples of modern football fandom you could ever wish to witness.

In the 21/22 season, Maguire averaged 4.12 progressive passes per 90; Virgil Van Dijk averaged 4.26; this is supposedly the English defenders worst season. The season before, 20/21, the Reds defender completed 200 progressive passes, the most amount by any central defender in the division. The closest center-back to Maguire that season was Ruben Dias with 154. Remarkable numbers for a player who apparently cannot progress a football.

Maguire had one poor season for United in a year when the entire team was abysmal by every possible metric. The English defender, however, took on the flak of the entire team, with his confidence dropping to extremely low depths, leading to him having the worst run of his career. This can happen as a footballer, and of course at a club like Manchester United, criticism is going to come. But, as we currently witness with Marcus Rashford, there comes a time when it’s no longer criticism, and it becomes a personal and media-driven vendetta to try and tear down footballers and drag them to the depths of despair, making them terrified to make a mistake for fear of being made a consistent meme every time they step out onto the pitch.

Ian Wright recently spoke about this, detailing the media’s witch hunt of the defender as unacceptable.

“The way Harry has been treated [has been personal] – if we really think about the critique of the players, it’s the volume of which it comes, you can’t get away from it,” he said.

“I look at Harry, the memes, the GIFS, and everything, and I’ve watched how he plays, everybody makes mistakes. I’ve not seen Harry do anything that makes me go, ‘What’s going on? How is this guy even playing?’

This is a footballer Pep Guardiola billed as excellent and top class, and had he signed for Manchester City in 2019 and played under Guardiola, the narrative around him would be a lot different. The suggestion that Ruben Dias is an all-together different profile than the United man is not exactly completely true, and the Portugal defender lacks mobility in a similar way to Maguire yet continuously looks comfortable in the structured set-ups on the blue side of Manchester.

Jose Mourinho targeted Maguire when he was manager of United the season before he was sacked and joked on Sky Sports the following transfer window that the player’s arrival came a year too late. Two of the greatest football minds of the last generation appreciate the qualities of an aggressive profile like Maguire, with top-class ability on the ball, but Twitter will have you believing he’s a League Two style defender and should have never touched the green grass of a Premier League football pitch.

The evidence is there. It’s before the eyes of anyone who wants to look at it. United struggled to play a high line with David De Gea in the side due to his lack of urgency when coming off the line, but when Dean Henderson had a run in the side, Maguire was absolutely a front-footed defender playing high up the pitch.

There’s both statistical and visual evidence to back this up. In 20/21, under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, when United finished second in the league, they had the fifth highest defensive line in the entire league, with only Brighton, Chelsea, Liverpool, and City keeping a higher line. United also had the fifth highest line in the 19/20 season. Harry Maguire played nearly every game prior to his injury against Aston Villa. How can we explain that one? Sorcery?

Manchester United went to the Etihad against Manchester City, who were on the back of a 21-game unbeaten run in all competitions, played an aggressive high line in the early portions of the game with Maguire and Lindelof as their back-two center-back pairing, and walked away from the game with a 2-1 win.

Here’s visual evidence of Harry Maguire being a proactive center-back in a high line 26 seconds into a Manchester derby in an action that actually led to the opening goal of this game through Anthony Martial winning a penalty.

This is again Harry Maguire in a high line in a Manchester Derby, at Manchester United, under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who didn’t have any tactics. Again, I hope I’m doing this correctly.

Last but not least, he’s Harry Maguire receiving the ball in a high left-sided position, six minutes into the game, just to ensure to the viewers that this is not witchcraft I’m pushing. These things actually happened.

Furthermore, we don’t even have to go back that far. Fulham. On Matchday one of the Premier League this season, Jacob Harry Maguire literally played in a high-line, being aggressive, being front-footed, and being the most impressive defender in the team during the game, ultimately winning United the game due to an outstanding interception in a 2v1 situation.

The 31-year-old was United’s best-performing center-back last season in the absence of Lisandro Martinez, and despite the league position, he is one of the players who walked away from the campaign in a positive light. Erik ten Hag tested Maguire to become the defender he wanted him to be, and after a difficult first campaign under the Dutchman, we saw the real version of Harry Maguire last season and at the beginning of this season.

This is a wonderful box defender, with line-breaking passing abilities and a switch of play a lot of defenders who’ve played the game will absolutely admire from afar. Maguire’s reputation has been ruined by a section of the media who do not care for player welfare and a price tag he never asked to be purchased for. Is he worth £80m? Probably not; nobody is to be honest. Is he a good defender? Absolutely, a really good one at that, who should go down as one of England’s best-performing center-backs at international level and a player who had a good career at Manchester United during his period at the club.