What happened to Harry Maguire?

When Harry Maguire powered in that header against Sweden in the World Cup 2018 a new English cult hero was born. Following another solid season with Leicester City Maguire became most expensive centre-back in the history of British football by moving to Manchester United.

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?

Seb Stafford-Bloor explains. Marco Bevilacqua illustrates.

Follow Tifo Football:

Listen to the Tifo Football podcast:

About Tifo Football:
Tifo loves football. We create In-depth tactical, historical and geopolitical breakdowns of the beautiful game.

We know there’s an appetite for thoughtful, intelligent content. For stuff that makes the complicated simple.

We provide analysis on the Premier League, Champions League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, World Cup and more.

Our podcasts interview some of the game’s leading figures. And our editorial covers football with depth and insight.

#PremierLeague #MUFC #EPL

[lokeyfunny]

The graphics and visuals on this video are superb. Great job by the Tifo team on this one.

[elyascorreanogueira]

Maguire's main problem is that he's as inflexible as a player can be when it comes to style of play. The reason Mourinho coveted him, Ole ended up signing him for United and he always plays for Southgate is that he's excellent at playing in a reactive side without much ground to defend behind him, making his lack of pace a lesser problem. He obviously isn't a world-class defender but he helped improve United's general defensive stats in the 19-20 and 20-21 seasons.

The moment Ole tried to move up the lines without a pressing striker, which overran a midfield that already wasn't good, and without a sweeping keeper behind the defense, he was doomed. Add to that how hilarious/baffling some of Maguire's mistakes were during last season and you got a easy punch bag.

[Tarry]

I feel like I'm genuinely one of the few that really hopes he has a redemption arc for his next team.

[jjseluk]

Maguire is ultimately better suited to teams that play on the back foot, sit deep and look to counter. Which is why he looked so good for England, Leicester and Utd in the first year. He’s woeful when playing on the front foot and pushing on. I still think he’ll be great going to a team that suits his playing style

[HomethaSick]

I will never forget the legendary headbutt to Ronaldo, or the scorpion kick to Pogba. Or when he was calling for a handball to his own teammate.
What a legend

[dontaskdonttell]

All i hear are excuses for a freaking 80 million man. Van dikj was bought and he lifted matip, Arnold, gomez's game.
Ruben dias was bought and he lifted his fellow defenders game. Even stones who was on is way out eventually began to improve.
But somehow for "Caption Maguire" we keep making excuses for him.
I remember the stick linedlof and baily received for one or two mistakes. They were almost crucified.
But for slab head we find a way to make excuses for him. A freaking aging Tiago silva was bought and he turned Chelsea defense for the best.
Look at lisandro we bought, see how he lifted the game of everyone around him.
Thats the Hallmark of a great defender with great character.
This pandering and making excuses for an average defender has to stop. His continued presence in the English national team backline says alot about the incompetence of there backroom staff. A team which has tomori, ben white, stones, mings, ben mee but somehow finds a way yo justify including the fridge is just plain stupidity at this point

[JonathanMallett]

He has very bad awareness for where the opposition players are. He simply does not scan. In a team that's pressing high and building from the back, that's a very bad trait.

I think he's still a decent defender but no longer fits the way Man Utd play.

[nimascolari]

Nothing. He was typically overhyped by the toxic British media, overvalued because he's English and finally got found out. He made so many mistakes at Leicester. Overrated.

[vanderwulf]

it hurts when you're always doing your best and then you hear you might be going to spurs

[bongs]

The big thing is his lack of accountability on all fronts from the whole Greece debacle to his performances to his agent talking down on people like DDG in the media. He’s never helped himself with how he carried himself and I think the biggest downfall was giving him the armband. Ramos would always tell CR7 to shut up & his performances would merit those words to be taken in account. But this guy would mess up and come out saying the strangest things about collective performances in post match interviews.

[TheNazreensyah]

I can say that this guy now is another version of Karius. His confidence is shattered

[boniface]

Why does the English media always make excuses for Maguire his a professional thats why he gets paid all that money 💰 playing under different manager shouldn't be an excuse hows Shaw adapting ?😊

[Septiankikialfaujan]

The problem with maguire for me as a united fan is that he doesn't want to blame himself in so many mistakes that he was created. I remember the game against burnley when he was blamed the attacking side for not scoring two goals to win the game.

[dansanchez]

Maguire is overhated. A victim of sensationalist media and toxic Twitter culture. Genuinely hope he finds redemption away from Man Utd.

Also, is it just me or SSB sounds different here?

[thomashetherington]

He's really not a good defender, I don't know why so many people are desperate to defend him. He has one good trait which is winning aerial duels, hence why he looks ok in a defensive system where he is very protected and his only job is to just head away balls from the box. If he has to play in any system that is more front foot he is terrible. This is due to him having a low footballing iq, bad decision making and being drawn to the ball like a cat to a lasor dot. He is also slow, immobile and clumsy. Furthermore, what makes him genuinely unlikable is his inability to accept blame or criticism, he never improves cause he never critically analyses his own game, and he frequently blames teammates for his bad performances. He's meant to be our "captain too btw", what a joke.

[WuRuYi]

That 5-0 loss to Liverpool will go down in history as one of Maguire's all time legendary performances. Truly unique player.

[phrophetsamgames]

They're gonna need an update to this video 😤

[norneaernourn]

He isn't bad for England because national teams generally do not possess the level of coordination to pull of an effective press like clubs do. And England, like most national teams do not press as high as club sides. So, there is a narrower gap for opponent counters that he is ill suited to defend against. He can't do much about that lack of pace. But, he can learn to read the game better which he hasn't done over the years. Otherwise with most top teams favoring high pressing, his fortunes isn't going to improve, unless he moves to a team that sits deeper.

[brexistentialism]

Very good analysis. It actually emphasises how important strong confidence is for defenders. They don't have the ball on their feet a lot so taking a scratch to your confidence can have long reaching effects.

[Groundsey]

During his first two seasons at the club, when Ole had the team playing purely counter attacking football, he was great. There’s a consensus that if he wasn’t injured for the Europa League final we probably would have won the game as we conceded from a set piece.

In that third season when Ole wanted us to be a bit more expansive, playing a higher line, it all fell apart as his lack of mobility was then exposed.