Jones Knows Notebook: Why Harry Maguire is a goalscorer in waiting for Manchester United | OneFootball

Harry Maguire is a player to back in the next few weeks

The set piece extravaganza in the Premier League is still offering up great betting opportunties and Lewis Jones has his eyes on a forgotten man in Harry Maguire to bring home some profit over the next few weeks...

Maguire is primed to cash in at the set piece party

In a season of set piece extravaganza, one man hasn't been able to have his feed.

A record number of goals are being scored from dead-ball situations, corners are such dangerous avenues for goals and centre-backs with aerial dominance have never been more valuable from a betting perspective.

Yet one of the best set-piece attackers in world football has barely been on the pitch for most of it.

Harry Maguire will have been watching on from the sidelines - bib on, knife and fork in hand - ravenous at what the Premier League has been producing in the area of the game he excels at.

So now, back in a Manchester United side that just might be set for an exciting end to the season, he has some catching up to do.

Since returning, he's registered four shots in just 281 minutes, generating an expected goals figure of 0.62, which is of course a chunky output for a centre-half. That includes hitting the crossbar against Manchester City.

Even before that, in his limited time on the pitch of starting just five games between August and October, Maguire found the net twice.

Maguire's threat: Corners, chaos and cash

This isn't a small-sample illusion. Maguire's profile as a set-piece monster is long established.

Across the last six Premier League seasons, only Virgil van Dijk is recording a headed shot at a higher rate than Maguire - one every 177 minutes. That's elite company.

Zoom out further and Maguire is attempting any kind of shot once every 107 minutes, the third-best rate of all centre-backs to have scored five or more goals in that period, behind only Van Dijk and Arsenal's Gabriel.

That is repeatable threat.

Manchester United are functioning better as a team, too, now they have been released from the shackles of Ruben Amorim's tactical chains. They're winning games, will be spending more time in the opposition half and therefore will be earning more set pieces.

Corners plus Maguire equals betting opportunity.

The markets are often slow to react to centre-backs returning from injury, particularly ones whose reputation is often undervalued. And that's where value hides.

Expect prices with Betfair across the anytime goalscorer, first goalscorer, shots and shots on target markets to remain generously inflated over the next couple of months.

Also, Betfair do offer prices on players just to have a headed shot of any kind and are offering generous prices on Maguire based on the 11/10 that was available for the Fulham game. That bet landed.

And it will again. Keep an eye especially on games against sides vulnerable defending corners - that's where Maguire historically feasts.

My advice is to follow him over the next few months and don't be surprised if the returns start stacking up.