We recently went over what we thought was the real issue with England’s Harry Maguire. It was essentially right in the middle of writing that Maguire article that we saw Nestor Araujo’s “stingy defense” in a corner kick end in a Colombia goal. Ultimately as you probably know by now Colombia came back to win that game. Is Nestor Araujo the Mexican Harry Maguire?
The first thing that we do want to be clear on is that Araujo has not had as many high profile mistakes as Maguire. Although we are aware of that there’s a clear reason why we’re comparing the two. Simply put, both are guys with clear deficiencies in their games, and yet they’ve found a way to start for numerous squads, including their national teams. Of course, Maguire has racked up way more money than Araujo has. There’s an argument to be made though that Maguire’s nationality, and being a part of a winning Leicester side really made all of the difference.
Technical Deficiencies & Mental Mistakes
Maguire, and Araujo are very similar in their technical deficiencies. We’ve talked about Maguire recently, and we mentioned how he regularly just tries to defend attacking players head on. That leads to a lot of fouls, exhibit A is the last penalty kick that he conceded against Germany. For Araujo there were also examples of this during the international break. He was beaten 3 times on corner kicks where he didn’t position himself well enough to be able to at least make it uncomfortable for the attacker to head the ball in. This is mainly due to the fact that he’s standing straight up a lot of the time, and he’s not even making contact with the man he’s marking.
One of the biggest issues that players at any level face is thinking that they are a lot more talented than they really are. Someone told Araujo that he’s great on the ball, and he can play long balls like he’s Rafa Marquez. There’s a reason though Araujo played at Celta de Vigo, and Rafa at Barcelona. It’s not just that Araujo’s passes were not as precise. It’s that Rafa knew when to play out short, when to go long when to press, and Araujo just thinks he kicks far. With Maguire we’ve seen him time and time again make bonehead decisions with the ball at his feet. These are the worst kinds of errors because they combine technical deficiencies with mental mistakes.
Why They’ve Been Able To Succeed
It’s easy for someone who is sitting on their couch looking at a game to see the mistakes that players make and quickly ride them off as “bums” . In the case of Araujo and Maguire we do have to give credit where credit is due. If these guys are so bad why have they been able to play in high level competition for so long? In Maguire’s case he captained Manchester United, and the English National Team. The work ethic that both of these guys have is probably next level. That’s potentially why coaches have such a hard time taking them out of the lineup.
As both of these players get older though there’s a good chance that the mistakes are going to keep piling up. Maguire looks a very old 29, and Araujo is into his 30s at this point. It seems that both of them have already lost a step. When you’re a limited player to begin with, losing your physical abilities really hurts your game. That can help explain why Maguire has seemingly fallen off a cliff. He was never great, but he was also not this bad! Sadly, it seems like these two are going to continue to show up on the wrong end of the highlight reel.
