Smalling was brilliant when we won in Paris. It got lost in the buzz of the winning penalty.
He was good because we were defending a lot and he's good at the basics. He's good in the air, good tackler, hard to beat in 1v1.
As good as Maguire as any of that.
His flaws are exposed more in other aspects. He's prone to lapses in concentration, poor decision making. Basically, he's a bit thick.
Maguire strikes me as similar. Makes a lot of errors and you see these things more at England level where they're largely on the front foot.
We don't see it as much because most games for Leicester are 'PSG Away' type games.
It's completely different here. It changes players. Makes them look worse. Makes them look different.
Look how many start well, like the players we signed, then fall to bits. Even class ones like Veron and Di Maria. Some start a wreck and grow in to it (Vidic, Evra... Lindelof
), but we all know United is a different animal.
To use Evans again: He came into the side as calm player, good on the ball. We liked him. He left a wreck. Hated.
Goes to West Brom and reverts to the former.
Jones was similar at Blackburn (Jones looked like he had more potential at Blackburn than Maguire has ever had IMO), now he's a joke.
Stick him or Smalling back to that level and I guarantee they'd look ten times the player. No pressure. No serious scrutiny.
That's the level we are judging Maguire from and what we no longer judge Smalling from.
And seeing as we are, we need to see some serious potential to grow. I just dont see that in Maguire. I don't see him being anything more than what we see already.
Smalling has spent 8 years at United under the most intense spotlight. He's had good moment, bad ones and horrific ones. He's played in title winning sides and some of the worst in recent.
He's been through it and has the scars.
Nobody thinks he's great, but I think these guys deserve a little more recognition sometimes.
When Magure has done a little more than looking pretty good for Hull and Leicester, maybe then I'll be a little more open to find the prospect of him not being that much better than Smalling completely laughable.
02-08-2019, 02:39 PM
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