Harry Maguire Isn't the World Class Centre-Back Man Utd Want Him to Be

Manchester United needed a world class centre-back last summer when they paid £80m for Harry Maguire, a world record fee for a defender. Just over 12 months on, it is clear they didn’t get it.

Maguire is not a bad defender. But world class? No. Not now and, likely, not ever.

He would certainly be a good partner if United had a world class centre-back next to him – Mikael Silvestre to Rio Ferdinand, or Ronny Johnsen to Jaap Stam, for example. But when he is supposed to be that himself, or at least heading that way, it becomes a problem.

It gives United an issue because, despite having invested £80m in Maguire, they still need to go out and buy an elite centre-back, with increasing urgency. It could cost as much again, or more - 90min revealed in July that United were one of a few clubs to enquire about Inter’s Milan Skriniar, who was priced at £75m by the Serie A side.

The obvious comparison in terms of recruitment is Liverpool’s similar £75m capture of Virgil van Dijk. There is no contest as to who the better defender is and who has made most impact. Manchester City, meanwhile, spent £57m on Aymeric Laporte.

Maguire obviously has strengths, yet his weaknesses are all too often exposed when it is he who is supposed to be the elite defender in the United back-line.

His one-on-one defending is the stuff of nightmares for frustrated fans, who see a supposedly top player undone by any attacker with pace and is too easily turned inside out by the most basic of direction change. With no superior centre-back to assist on the cover, it is exacerbated.

Some might think it fair to give Maguire the benefit of the doubt off the back of a shortened summer break that included several nights in a Greek jail cell and a trial and conviction for something he remains adamant he didn’t do. But his weaknesses were already being exposed last season.

In Saturday’s opening game of the season, Crystal Palace knew exactly how to exploit it. Should it therefore be much of a surprise the Eagles emerged with three points after a comfortable 3-1 win?

Victor Lindelof has not improved the way United would have hoped. The Swede had looked promising at times, but it's almost as though he is now regressing instead of developing. Rather like Maguire, he might be a solid partner for a world class centre-back, but he doesn’t have that.

The options beyond these two are not good. Eric Bailly and Teden Mengi are the next two fit and available options who haven’t been frozen out. The former has missed more football than he’s played over the last four years and the latter only turned 18 in April.

United were woeful in attack against Palace, hardly a good start to a new campaign when what should be a good group of attacking players look exhausted and out of ideas on day one. But while Jadon Sancho remains the priority target before the transfer deadline on 5 October, it is worth questioning whether chasing a centre-back should now take over instead.

Unless one becomes an emergency fix, there isn’t the time or money to address both.

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