Maguire being admired from afar.

[highpeakblade]

As the title says really various footy forums around the UK have mentions post Cambridge game of how they like the look of young Harry. The words Composed, reliable and great passer of the ball both short and long are in there.......

Is it just me or did Maguire nearly let Cambridge in again with a under weighted pass under no real pressure at the back?

Harry is in one of his better spells at the minute again post clough arrival. Will be very interesting to see what happens with him in January when he gets attention / admirers like this, the press obviously said Man Utd and Chelski were both admirers from afar so will he be with us come next feb?.

What with the prince coming in and stuff and the emphasis now being to build on what we have with no real pressure to sell key assets, will we tell all of the admirers where to go?

 

[puppet]

id turn abramovich into abu hamza for £2m or above (ie i'd snatch his hand off)

 

[metalblade]

He will still be with us he is slow and error prone.

 

[SwissBlade]

He will still be with us he is slow and error prone.

These are his two big negatives.

If someone could work on his concentration/ reaction Time then pace might not be as big an issue as we believe... If he's alongside a faster cb.

Discipline is a minor problem at time. I don't mind bookings but they need to be for football, not these little melees which whilst not always his fault, but he needs to learn when to step away and when to twat someone.

 

[boo radley]

Turning circle of a bendy bus when ran at by attackers,

 

[Kev Gee]

he got turned really easy in the first half at Cambridge & couldnt make up the ground.

Needs to improve his reading of the game if he is to make it at the top level.
Having said that he is our only real asset apart from Long.

 

[FleaPitBlade]

He's slow. We all know that. In itself it is not a show stopper and he will play at the top level if he learns how to stop attackers exploiting that weakness and his team mates knowing that and understanding where and how he needs cover. That is done by positioning and anticipation on harrys part and others not leaving him isolated. He's a ball winner and needs the right partner. The Carvalio to the Terry, The Ferdinand to the vidic.

He's been around a while but in centre half terms hes still very much a kid learning his trade.

 

[sitwell]

well I think he is quality.

 

[cooperblade]

well I think he is quality.

And so do I and so do plenty of top flight managers if the rumour mill is to be believed.

He is proof (as is George Long) that United fans will be more patient with young players from the academy than signings from elsewhere but only for about 20 games.

In my opinion, Harry is a cracking young centre back. I've really enjoyed watching him in these times where we've had so few players that we can connect with as fans and he'll be missed when he leaves for a club much higher up the pecking order than us.

 

[highpeakblade]

Whilst I agree that he is a decent player I think he is a millions miles away from the finished article or the holy grain of the premiership.

I think even the argument of him still being young and developing is some what flawed these days when you look at how many players of the same age are consistently playing and performing in the Premier League. The Major difference I guess is that not many young CB's come through and hit it off from an early age as opposed to strikers and midfielders.

I personally think his body frame and pace will always be against him when it comes to being one of the top players in the country. Whilst I can see why the interest in him has come about I don't understand why they can't see the same limitations that we can see week in week out if they have been monitoring him?

I played down all this talk off moulding him into a defensive Midfielder but the more I think about it, the more I think it might not be the worst idea in the world.

 

[blade too long]

some doubted Jagjelka thats life

 

[Isiah]

Think he could probably beat Terry in a sprint and he's not had a bad career.

 

[LardSardine]

I was at Cambridge on Sunday and he was a class above the rest of the players on the pitch. Won everything in the air (against a side much taller on average than ours) and was the player the rest of the back line were looking to give it to, to build from the back.

Having said that, it was against non-league opposition (albeit the best team currently in non-league) and it's not difficult to look good when compared to most of our inept side. He does have his limitations/weaknesses obviously, but he is still young and it's players like him and Long that we should be looking to build a side around.

 

[blade too long]

hed probably look a lot better with more quality around him , but you could say that for anyone

 

[blade too long]

He will still be with us he is slow and error prone.

did you miss Steven Gerrards back pass that handed France a win
players make mistakes

 

[mattbianco1]

He is so composed on the ball and for such a young age too.

I've said for months if he had pace he wouldn't be playing for us now.

When he's up against a lightning quick striker he usually gets booked first challenge as they rip him a new one. I'm not up on all this sports science malarky but surely he could lean up and work on his pace?? If he was faster he would be unbelievable... and sold unfortunately!

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I'm not surprised they thought he was good. In those parts of the game where you can't help but notice (i.e. he's got the ball, they've backed off and he has time to do something with it) he looked a class apart. There were two or three occasions where he used the amount of space he'd been given to step forward with it - and continued when they backed off. He then hit a couple of really sweet cross-field balls to the left (one of which Lappin contrived to make a right meal of by misreading the bounce).

There were a couple of times where they made us look a bit iffy on the edge of the box - but I was impressed by how well we managed to scramble around them to restrict any shooting opportunities.

Sure, the lad makes mistakes. He's barely into his twenties and is playing League 1 football. It's hardly like he's had a world class mentor alongside him, and - for the most part - he gets away with the mistakes he makes. Having grown up watching the likes of West, Barnsley and Thompson alongside Stancliffe at this level, I reckon he's good enough for me.

 

[highpeakblade]

I was at Cambridge on Sunday and he was a class above the rest of the players on the pitch. Won everything in the air (against a side much taller on average than ours) and was the player the rest of the back line were looking to give it to, to build from the back.

Having said that, it was against non-league opposition (albeit the best team currently in non-league) and it's not difficult to look good when compared to most of our inept side. He does have his limitations/weaknesses obviously, but he is still young and it's players like him and Long that we should be looking to build a side around.

I also was at Cambridge Sunday and saw him get turned and beat for pace at least twice, I also saw him misread a ball coming towards him that nearly let them in and I saw him almost sell another ball short which was lucky not to let them in 1 on 1 with the keeper. All of the above are not singular incidents but occur regularly, of course we could argue that with his age he is still very much reading the game and developing but for me he is far from the finished article at the minute.

Maybe of course we are just used to seeing a traditional CB eg Morgan who puts everything in and gets the basics right 99% of the time. He rarely got beat on turn because he got his positioning right, if he got turned he generally managed to get back goal side.

If Maguire gets sharper then he has a chance of playing at a pretty decent standard but at the minute his limitations would worry me in a championship side never mind the top flight and I think he would come undone.

 

[highpeakblade]

did you miss Steven Gerrards back pass that handed France a win
players make mistakes

Yes players make mistakes but when players consistently make mistakes in a league like this one it doesn't brew much optimism or even confidence that they can go on and succeed at an higher level.

Verdict : For me he's not good enough for the top flight and lacks pace and positioning at the minute to be a top half of Championship player.

 

[blade too long]

you have to look at whats around him , I think Id be PLAYING IN PANIC MODE

 

[JohnDenver]

you have to look at whats around him , I think Id be PLAYING IN PANIC MODE

Yup. Anyone who's played at any level knows that defending is a team pursuit. A good defender won't look good if his compadres are leaving him exposed, but you can still recognise the raw materials he has.

I'm certain that Harry can play at a higher level, given decent players around him. Probably not Premiership but certainly Championship.

 

[yorkshirecoast]

I think he is ok but nothing more at the moment - and he hasn't really improved since first coming into the team. At times he looks composed on the ball and dominant in the air - and is a threat from set plays when we are attacking. But he is unbelievably slow and struggles against anyone with pace - even non-league Cambridge strikers made him look silly a couple of times. He also makes too many errors. We struggle with two slow central defenders in League 1 - any higher and we would be slaughtered.

 

[SandyMcBlade]

We don't have a better player in the team, he's a presence when on the ball and moving forward can control the game.
Not bad for 20, and for me he has got to be a future captain..

 

[Bladesway]

Think he is very good for his age and is an excellent young prospect. People seem to be forgetting his age and that he is still learning, hence will make mistakes. Think we are massively over critical of him.

 

[super_pig]

some doubted Jagjelka thats life

jags was always a great athlete

 

[alcoblade]

you have to look at whats around him , I think Id be PLAYING IN PANIC MODE

If they're all below par, how do we decide who are the poor ones and who are being made to look poor?

UTB

 

[JohnDenver]

jags was always a great athlete

Yup. I remember when he was 17 it was obvious that if his touch and passing developed he could be a great midfielder. As it turned out, his defensive play blossomed. Could have been anything, the lucky bugger.

 

[yorkshirecoast]

Yup. I remember when he was 17 it was obvious that if his touch and passing developed he could be a great midfielder. As it turned out, his defensive play blossomed. Could have been anything, the lucky bugger.

Judging by the punch that sent us down, I think keeper is his best position.

 

[dublin 10 blade]

The black pearl of Inchicore , wasn't lightning fast , missed training ( ahem ) due to his knee problems , but because of his reading of the game , was one of the games best defenders , Cut the lad some slack , or do people want to be on moaning about the club selling its best young players , Like Some do about Jags , lowts , or the Kyles , kin hell Blades we know he's not a world class defender but leave the kid alone . Oh ah Paul McGrath

 

[LoughboroBlade]

It's an interesting discussion. I personally don't think he's ever likely to reach the heights that Phil Jagielka reached, but I think he's done well, is improving, and there's no reason to think he won't continue to improve.

He's around 20 years 8 months in age - worth thinking about where Jagielka was in his development at that age. That would put Jagielka at around March in the Triple Assault season, 2002/03. He's at that time played about 30 games less than Maguire, but it's only really this season that he's really shown us any real quality after being switched from the midfield to right back. He'll only start being a regular centre-half when Shaun Murphy comes out of the team the following month - up till then he's barely been used there.

Obviously Maguire is playing at a level below Jagielka at the same age, but Harry is quite clearly a centre-half that lacks the versatility that Jagielka has - which means he won't be moved around in search for his ideal position. Let's not forget that Jagielka also used to make more than the occasional clanger in his first proper season at centre-half - anyone that went to the thrashing at Wigan will remember Nathan Ellington and Jason Roberts taking full advantage that day.