There was an ambiguous answer from Harry Maguire to the question of whether he feels properly appreciated. “For England, yes, I do,” Maguire replied.
Maguire has enjoyed near-constant backing from Manchester United supporters, bar some pantomime cheers at his removal as their season petered out against Atletico Madrid last season. In the next game, his crass chant reserved for England duty was aired for one time only as a riposte to the little England ingrates who booed him a week earlier.
At the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium, Maguire cut loose in victory. "I shouldn’t really need to prove myself at this level," he opined. At international level, Maguire has had a commendable career that comprises of three fine tournament performances and seven goals. Maguire nodded in at the 2018 World Cup and the European Championship in 2021, when he was rightly named in the team of the tournament.
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But Maguire's statement jars with Erik ten Hag's outlook. You could count on one hand how many Ten Hag press conferences have been staged without the United manager reiterating "good is not good enough" or "satisfaction leads to laziness".
The zenith of Maguire's United career was also the nadir. His introduction in the dying embers of a cup final was reminiscent of Wayne Rooney's introduction on his final appearance for the club in the Europa League final in 2017. Maguire emerged as much to be ready to hoist his first trophy as to preserve United's clean sheet.
That act alone confirmed the game is up for Maguire. United plan on selling him in the summer, which has made Maguire's recent selections over Victor Lindelof curious. Lindelof has started in six of United's last 25 games and, back in his homeland in Sweden and speaking his mother tongue, he admitted he would have to "evaluate" his position in the summer.
Ten Hag wants to keep Lindelof but he may be the more sellable of United's reserve centre halves. Lindelof is technically out of contract next year, there is little loss to make, if any, on the £39million United committed to paying Benfica six years ago and there is not the incessant media intrigue that there is with captain Maguire.
Anthony Elanga is another who addressed his future in Svenska. Elanga last lined up for United in the Premier League in their final game prior to the World Cup at Fulham on November 13 and both of his goals in the last year have been for the Sweden national team.
Players are bound to have one eye on the summer when spring arrives and the clocks go forward. Elanga has gone backwards at United, who have pencilled in a loan for next season.
Bar an injury to Marcel Sabitzer that only restricted him to a bench role for Austria against Estonia, Ten Hag has had a stress-free fortnight. David de Gea, Raphael Varane and Fred have enjoyed breaks, Marcus Rashford and Christian Eriksen are back on the grass and United's fringe players have thrived.
Sabitzer and Elanga scored but United's man of the March internationals was the prolific Scott McTominay, with four goals in two games for Scotland. The most recent double downed Spain at Hampden Park. "Basically Jude Bellingham with goals," quipped the Sunday Times journalist Jonathan Northcroft, of Aberdeenshire.
McTominay has had a useful goal-getting nous for a number of years that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer coaxed out of him yet United's midfield imbalance always reined him in. It has contributed to an identity crisis and McTominay has been caught between two stools.
Although Newcastle are hovering, United are not actively looking to sell McTominay, one of their four senior midfielders and the youngest by nearly four years.
He has been found out with the long-awaited arrival of a specialist defensive midfielder in Casemiro, yet McTominay is still the obvious choice to deputise for the Brazilian. Casemiro is suspended for United's next three matches and Sabitzer's knee problem prevented him from starting for Austria against Estonia in Linz on Monday.
True to form, Wout Weghorst did not score in his two outings with the Netherlands over the last week and United supporters are probably primed for Ten Hag to reveal another Anthony Martial has had another setback on Friday. Few would bet on Martial starting at Newcastle on Sunday.
Watching McTominay train at Carrington and in Cadiz, he is one of United's most physically imposing players. United teammates have nicknamed McTominay 'McTerminator'.
A former Burnley teammate of Weghorst's remarked he shrank when he jumped and Weghorst has won the majority of aerial duels in only two of his 18 games for United. Four of McTominay's 18 United goals have been headers.
Ten Hag threw on McTominay up front at Stamford Bridge, where it was Casemiro who outjumped him to equalise. Most of McTominay's strikes are technically identical; a pure hit on the laces into the corner of the net. McTominay spent much of his academy career as a back-up striker and may assume that role at first-team level.
Once United have a fuller squad with Eriksen fit, Casemiro available and, quelle surprise, a fit and firing Martial, McTominay is a more athletic and prolific plan B to turn to than Weghorst.
And he plays as though he has to prove himself.
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