Don Hutchison and Steve Nicol appeared on ESPN to discuss Manchester United following their 2-0 win over Leicester City on the final day of the 2019/20 Premier League season which guaranteed them a place in next season’s UEFA Champions League as they secured a third-place Premier League finish.
Their discussion about Manchester United was shared on the ESPN UK YouTube channel and at one point during this conversation, Nicol spent some time talking about Harry Maguire, who joined Manchester United last summer for £80m, setting a new world transfer record for a defender, as per the BBC.
Despite the fact that United spent big to sign Maguire last summer, Hutchison revealed that he believes the Red Devils “need a world-class centre-half” if they are to compete with the Premier League’s top two Manchester City and Liverpool next season.
Nicol agreed with this assessment, sharing that he also believes that United need to sign another centre-back for next season and he spent some time discussing Maguire.
He said: “I do agree, [they need] a centre-back, big-time, beside Maguire. I think Maguire’s a good centre-back in the Premier League. I don’t think he’s anywhere near [Virgil] van Dijk, but he’s certainly made a big impact at United.”
Do Manchester United need to sign a world-class centre-back?
YES
NO
TIF Thoughts…
After joining the club last summer, £50.4m-rated Maguire was an ever-present for Manchester United during the 2019/20 Premier League season. With that in mind, it may be fair to say that the addition of Maguire to United’s defence played an important role in the club conceding 18 fewer goals during the 2019/20 campaign than they conceded during the 2018/19 campaign.
United conceded just one goal more than City and just three goals more than Liverpool during the 2019/20 season, while they scored 36 fewer goals than City and 19 fewer goals than Liverpool. So, while United may be able to improve their defence, perhaps their focus should be on improving their attack next season, as they are trailing the Premier League’s top two more significantly in the goalscoring department.