Harry Maguire - Why he is so key to our team

(A thread)

Harry Maguire recently arrived from Leicester for a free of £80 million pounds which has put him under the spotlight straight away but here is why I believe he has lived up to the price tag and the key role he plays in our team

Forward passing -
One of Maguire’s biggest attributes is his ability to pass forwards and begin the attack from the backline, these clips show Harry looking for the ball into the oppositions half and you could call them ‘linebreakers’

Maguire currently sits at 602 passes forwards, which is a good amount and with ole liking his teams to play from the back Harry is a key part of his system and the reason we have looked good going forwards especially on the counter

Maguire’s forward passing in comparison to other defenders in the league:

Virgil Van Dijk - 724 forward passes

Toby Alderweireld - 568 forward passes

David Luiz - 460 forward passes

Maguire’s forwards passing in comparison to other defenders in Europe:

Gerard pique - 607 forward passes

Sergio Ramos - 588 forward passes

Thiago Silva - 543 forward passes

Maguire’s pass accuracy (90% PG) in comparison to other defenders in the premier league this season:

Virgil Van Dijk - 88% PG

Aymeric Laporte - 92% PG

Toby Alderweireld- 82% PG

Maguire’s pass accuracy (90% PG) in comparison to other defenders in europe this season:

Giorgio Chiellini - 87% PG

Gerard Pique - 89% PG

Raphaël Varane - 87% PG

Ball carrying:
The next attribute to Maguire’s game is his ability to carry the ball out from defence after winning it, shown in these clips...

This is shows with his successful dribbles percentage (SD%) coming in at a 71% success rate showing how difficult he can be when he does carry the ball up the pitch

Harry Maguire (SD%) in comparison to other defenders in the Premier league:

Virgil Van Dijk - 68% SD

Jan Vertonghen - 63% SD

Aymeric Laporte - 67% SD

Harry Maguire’s SD% In comparison to defenders in Europe:

Gerard pique - 67%

Raphaël Varane - 66%

Thiago Silva - 67 %

Agressive defending:
The next part to Maguire’s game which I feel is his main asset is his ability to jump in and intercept the ball which allows him to then make the right forward pass or carry the ball upwards the field, as shown in these clips

The biggest part of Maguire’s game Is using his body to get in front of the opposing attacker and get his head onto the ball which he does to extreme effect as you’ll be able to see in these clips:

Maguire’s aerial dules won is currently as a huge 72% which a man of his physique should be doing but nonetheless it is still a high number and a very useful asset to uniteds defence

Maguire’s aerial duels % in comparison to other defenders in the premier league:

Virgil Van Dijk - 75%

Aymeric Laporte - 64%

Toby Alderweireld - 48%

Maguire’s aerial duels % in comparison to other defenders in europe this season:

Gerard Pique - 70%

Sergio Ramos - 56%

Raphaël Varane - 71%

Maguire’s total dules won percentage (TD%) comes in at 66% in the premier league this season, this is the average of his aerial + ground duels won which isn’t the best but his ground duels significant reduce his overall percentage

Maguire’s TD% in comparison to other defenders in the premier league:

Virgil Van dijk - 75%

Aymeric Laporte - 64%

Victor Lindelof - 61%

Maguire’s TD% in comparison to other defenders in the Europe:

Gerard Pique - 64%

Raphaël Varane - 68%

Giorgio Chiellini- 59%

In conclusion I believe Maguire is by far our best defender and another player we should be looking to build the team around if we want to challenge for titles, he needs to solidly a partnership with someone and cement it

I hope you enjoyed the read, if you did a RT would be much appreciated and follow for more content like this