He’s not regularly been very good at all though. International football he’s not playing the best of the best. In the premier league he’s not been a regularly good centre back for 2 seasons.
It was a friendly fixture, club managers aren't keen on their stars getting more minutes than necessary at the best of times - Southgate would get reamed if he played someone into the ground and they couldn't play at the weekend, or even worse, picked up a muscle injury.
Who, tonight, looked like they were being played into the ground? That was comfortable, no sweat. Until Maguire came on. And given the captains armband. Captain???? It is not the job of the England manager to do his best to resurrect a fading players career.
I think people forget how long the Maguire thing has been ongoing, and how many times he's proved people wrong. One of the first times I remember it peaking was when we played Denmark in October 2020 and he got sent off. People then gave him absolute pelters and said he wasn't up to playing for England any more. He proved them wrong at the euros, being one of our best players in the tournament despite going into it injured, being named in the team of the tournament, and scoring an absolutely perfect penalty in the final shootout. Make no mistake, if he'd missed that people would have absolutely loved to tear him apart for it. He was under more pressure than anyone and stood up to it in the most emphatic way. Then last winter as he was starting to be obviously unfavoured by Ten Haag, people said he shouldn't go to the World Cup and again he proved them wrong, was named in the team of the tournament again. People now point to his lack of regular club football, but he was the scapegoat and the joke figure long before that, largely because he has an oafish appearance. If anything, the pressure piled on him when he was doing well for Man U almost certainly played a big part in his downturn in form for them and subsequent dropping. I think there's an arrogance in people being repeatedly wrong on him, and then starting the pile on all over again every time there's an international break with no acknowledgement of all the previous times that we've been through it and he's proved himself.
Maguire has been and is being unfairly treated IMO, but what I find baffling is why did he turn down a move to WH, surely getting out of Manure and getting game time is better that staying where he is?
Maguire needs 5/6 games and playing regularly to be at his best. He won’t get that at Utd, strangely he’s never really let England down and probably been one of the most consistent performers over the last 5/6 years along with Pickford. The abuse for England is not fair at all. I’m just thinking the amount of mistakes Stones used to make and the amount of times he’s out of position, same with Trent as well.
If I had been him I would have taken a drop and just got out the place, it can hardly be a nice place to be, and I am sure he would have still got a decent wage from WH.
Southgate is too loyal to his players, national team managers should never pick non club playing players, it’s a massive insult to the in form players, remember when Glenn Hoddle dropped Paul Gascoigne because he deemed him not fit, the country was outraged, but right or wrong he did it. I still say if Hoddle had not said what he did, he would have won something with England.
Id rather the England manager picked on what he sees in training and in matches rather than who is/isn’t doing well for a completely different team. Rewarding form with call ups is absolutely fine, but building a team that plays well together is much more than that. It’s something Southgate has done really well and for me the reason we are finally doing well in tournaments.
Harry Maguire was statistically the highest performing centre back at the 2022 World Cup, just 9 months ago and has always performed well on international duty. He fully deserves his place in the England squad and team and rightly should be one of the first picked.
So, what do you think about Henderson claiming it was not about the money when the LGBTQ+ campaigner moved to Saudi Arabia?
