Better than Saliba and Thiago Silva! Maguire makes top-five Premier League centre-backs

Robin Bairner

27 Nov 2023 12:09 GMT
9 min read

Harry Maguire playing for Man Utd against Luton in the Premier League — © ProShots

Harry Maguire would have been sold in the summer if Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag had his way, but the England international has enjoyed a renaissance that has seen him re-establish himself among the Premier League's best centre-backs.

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Indeed, Maguire is now in the leading five players in his position in the Premier League this season, according to data analytics firm SciSports.

The 30-year-old has featured 12 times across all competitions for Man Utd this season and has started each of the last six league games, in which United have enjoyed a run of three successive clean sheets.

It is off the back of these displays that Maguire has risen into the top five centre-backs in the top-flight, according to SciSports, whose results are calculated using hundreds of in-game data points.

© ProShots - Harry Maguire's crisis appears to be over

Maguire returns to elite form

Maguire is outperforming the likes of Arsenal’s William Saliba and Chelsea’s Thiago Silva to make the grade among these elite figures.

He rates especially well in terms of his tackling and interception numbers.

The surprising leader in this category is Brighton defender Jan Paul van Hecke, who was signed in 2020 from NAC Breda but has since spent spells at Heerenveen and Blackburn Rovers on loan.

Also in the top five are Manchester City’s Manuel Akanji, Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konate and Crystal Palace’s highly rated Joachim Andersen.

These figures should be taken with a pinch of salt at this stage of the season, though. SciSports warns that any players who have yet to play 900 minutes of Premier League football cannot have their performances rated with absolute certainty, and Maguire is one of the men who falls into this category.

Nevertheless, what he has shown at the beginning of the campaign has proven Ten Hag spectacularly wrong.