England manager Gareth Southgate not certain on 'complicated decision' to pick Harry Maguire
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Updated 28/03/2022 at 18:01 GMT
Manchester United and England defender Harry Maguire has endured more than a season of poor form and questions were raised to national team coach Gareth Southgate over whether the player should remain in the England team. Southgate praised Maguire's contributions but admitted it was far from certain that he would keep his place.
Gareth Southgate faces 'complicated decision' on defender Harry Maguire
England manager Gareth Southgate has said it is a ‘complicated decision’ to keep Harry Maguire in his England team.
The Manchester United central defender has been in poor form since the start of last season, and has regularly committed mistakes to hamper his club team, and has also struggled with the national side despite not missing a game during the country’s World Cup qualification matches.
The 29-year-old former Leicester City player did not play for England when they faced Switzerland at the weekend, but could take to the pitch against Ivory Coast in Tuesday night’s international friendly.
Maguire has 41 caps to his name but might find it hard to justify a 42nd with his current performances, and Southgate was asked if he deserved to keep his place going by recent form.
Southgate praised the player, but did not give him full backing for the future or the upcoming game.
“He got us to a World Cup semi-final and the European Championship final so there’s no doubt he’s more than capable of playing at the highest level,” he said.
“He was very good for us in the autumn and the club are in a difficult moment. There could be any number of reasons for that. But that doesn’t mean that players can be poor for a couple of years and then still find their way in and sometimes it depends on competition for positions.
“We’ve obviously left some forward players out who haven’t been in good form. But there’s direct replacements, experienced replacements for those players. So as I say, it is a complicated decision.”
The manager also refused to be drawn on who else might get the nod for the next game.
“I’ll let Ivory Coast find out when we put a team sheet in,” explained Southgate.
“If [Kane] had his way he would play 90 minutes of every fixture, which is a brilliant quality to have because if your captain wants to be at every camp and playing every minute of every game that sets the tone for everything else. The fact is, we’ve got a good squad. We want to keep people involved and give people opportunities. We need to see certain things across the week to see how people can play at the level.”
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