Gareth Southgate publicly issued his full support of centre-back Harry Maguire ahead of England's 1-0 defeat by Italy at the San Siro last Friday.
His comments sparked significant backlash, with many fans and pundits alike of the belief that the Manchester United captain has done very little to warrant a place in the Three Lions squad, let alone regularly start. Maguire has lost his starting spot at Old Trafford under new manager Erik ten Hag.
The defender has started just two Premier League games this season and the Red Devils have lost both. The first came on the opening day when Maguire skippered United to a 2-1 home defeat by Brighton, before a week later he was one of the main culprits in a humiliating 4-0 hammering at Brentford.
He has since been dropped in place of Raphael Varane, who has helped forge a formidable partnership at the heart of the United backline with summer signing Lisandro Martinez. Despite this, Maguire's England place does not look to be under any significant threat.
"Clearly, it’s not an ideal situation [with Maguire]. We’re only a few weeks on from pre-season so, physically, if they’ve had a few 90 minutes, that’s fine. Another seven to eight weeks, that does start to become more complicated," Southgate admitted.
"But he is an important player for us and it’s important to back our best players. Whatever reputation I have, I’m putting it on there. He is our most dominant aerial centre-back.
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"Him and John [Stones] are incredible with the ball – the amount of pressure they have taken for the team in tournaments because we don’t always have that midfield pivot player who can progress the game. It means there is a huge amount more pressure on our centre-backs to use the ball well and those two are as good as any in world football at doing that."
Southgate's feelings towards Maguire are clearly at odds with how Ten Hag views the defender, but this may simply stem from their contrasting array of options.
While over at Old Trafford, Ten Hag can call upon a four-time Champions League winner in Raphael Varane to help guide summer signing Lisandro Martinez through the early stages of his United career, Southgate doesn't quite have that luxury on the international stage.
Fikayo Tomori, while impressive so far at AC Milan, is arguably lacking key big-game experience. Maguire, on the other hand, has lined up in the semi-finals of World Cups as well as last summer's Euro 2020 final.
Arsenal's Benjamin White is gifted on the ball, but Southgate's praise of Maguire suggests aeriel prowess is something he values highly as boss and it is undeniably something the £50million-man lacks - and may well be the reason he has been omitted from the squad altogether.
Conor Coady and Tyrone Mings are undeniably useful options to have in reserve, but both aren't quite at the level to dislodge any of Southgate's preferred options at the back.
Eric Dier is perhaps the player that can feel the most hard done by, with the Spurs stalwart operating at arguably the highest level of any English defender so far this term yet and while he could come in should Southgate deploy a back-three, a back four would surely see him make way for Maguire and Stones.
Some would argue the very fact that the manager so often reverts to a back three is an example of how Maguire isn't of the highest calibre otherwise he'd be trusted as part of a back four.
The reality is that Maguire is integral to the conservative approach Southgate so often takes when the stakes are high. While that may not be how Ten Hag operates at Old Trafford, England's system is drastically different.
A semi-final finish in the 2018 World Cup followed by a final defeat at Euro 2020, if the trajectory of progress is linear than Maguire could silence many of his doubters in Qatar.
