Harry Maguire claims he will view his England career as a “failure” unless they win a trophy.
Maguire, 30, has reached a World Cup semi and quarter final, lost the Euros final and says they must go one better this time otherwise they will not have fulfilled their potential.
England defender Maguire said: “I think for me, at my age as well. 30 years old now and I'm with a mindset of: 'if we don't win the tournament, it's been a failure.’ Obviously, we've got to qualify for the Euros first - I mean it's a tough Group, obviously come to Italy and, and got an amazing result.
“But that's my mindset. I mean, I've been at three major tournaments now and I've come so close. So my mindset is obviously I believe that we have the players to win it.”
Maguire says they still look back upon the quarter final defeat to France in Qatar with regret because he is convinced they should have won. He even claimed if they played France ten times, England would win the majority of the games and got unlucky.
England went agonisingly close in 2018 but lost to Croatia, suffered heartbreak in the Euros final and says again they lost by “fine margins” against France and it is now down to England to overcome those margins.
Maguire said: “Yes, we're in a good place, we felt like it was in a good place at the World Cup. But these big tournaments are decided on the finest margins, I think we played really well in the World Cup and ultimately, we got knocked out to a good French team.
“A French team that we believe we can take on and if we play them 10 times, we would give them a good game 10 times and probably win more than we lose. However, they've proven over the years that they manage to get the job done better than England do.
“So it's something that we're working on. But of course, we have to look at our team now and our squad and we have so much talent and so many young players coming through.”
Despite the mistake which let Italy back into the game, Maguire was bullish about his international career as he insisted it stands up against anyone.
“I feel like I'm 30 years old but I shouldn't really need to prove myself at this level. I've made over 50 caps I'm England's top scoring defender. “I've played nearly 200 times for Manchester United, I've captained the club for three years now but I do also understand that when you are the captain of Manchester United you do come under the most amount of scrutiny.
“Obviously, last season was difficult for the club but listen, I've proven myself to Gareth, who works with a wide-range of centre-backs. He has the choice of all the English centre-backs in the country and every time I'm available, I've been in the team. I'm sure if you ask the rest of the lads they know what I bring to the team.”
Maguire also insists that his record for United is also better than he is given credit for. “I see myself as a leader for my club as well,” said Maguire.
“Obviously this season, I haven't played as much as I'd like but for my club, I feel like my form's been good this year. I know people obviously look at me not playing but when I've played, I think in my last eight or nine starts for Manchester United we have won.
“But of course I love playing for my country and in 50-odd caps I feel like I've never let my country down. It means a lot to come to Italy, we know the record that we've had, It's been spoken about over the last week or so and so to win was a special night for us.”
