Italian football legend Giorgio Chiellini has defended under-fire Manchester United captain Harry Maguire amid his struggles at the Red Devils.
Maguire became a lightning rod for the anger of United fans as their season fell apart last term. The Englishman now finds himself out of the starting line-up at Old Trafford, with Erik ten Hag instead preferring Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane at the heart of his defence.
Chiellini came up against Maguire in the Euro 2020 final last year, which Italy won on penalties, and the 38-year-old has leapt to the his rival's defence as he comes under increasing pressure.
"I am sad for Maguire's situation because he is a good player. They [Manchester United] require too much of him. Just because they paid £80million for him, he has to be the best in the world every match? It's not right," he told The Times.
"The value of the market is dependent on many aspects you can't control. It's not your fault. Him and [John] Stones are a good duo. OK, Maguire maybe is not Rio Ferdinand but he's good enough.
"With this situation it's not helping [England] to do the best. If you want to win the World Cup it's impossible to do it with some problems in the key players, and for sure Maguire is one of the key players of the team.
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"I’m curious because many times England arrive at the end of the season devastated from all the matches but now is different, now they are fresh. The group is young but it is growing up a lot. But English players are really pressured by all the media and fans, so it’s not easy."
So far, Maguire has kept his place on the international stage for England despite him falling down the pecking order at United. But one option to replace him if he does fall out of favour under Gareth Southgate is Fikayo Tomori.
The 24-year-old has starred for AC Milan over the past 18 months, helping them to win the Serie A title last season. Chiellini came up against him during his final campaign at Juventus and has hailed the former Chelsea star.
“He surprised me because I saw him in Chelsea and I didn’t think he could be so strong in the box [or] attentive for 90 minutes. He is one of the keys of Milan winning last year,” Chiellini - now of Los Angeles FC - said of Tomori, before also praising City's Kyle Walker.
“I love Kyle Walker. Walker is unbelievable. I don’t know how it’s possible to be so fast, so strong. He could do the 100 metres against jaguars, maybe, because he is something fantastic.”
England face Italy in the Nations League on Friday in their penultimate game before this winter's World Cup. Maguire appears to be in danger of losing his place if he continues to be shunned by Ten Hag at club level.
