The problem for Harry Maguire – and it has coloured his situation for some time – is that many supporters want the England team to be picked on club form. It is not how Gareth Southgate works, at least not entirely. The England manager places an emphasis on how his players have performed for him, on what he sees directly. The critics call it excessive loyalty. Southgate views it as basic logic.
Maguire’s travails at Manchester United have been well documented. For him, 2022-23 was the lost season at club level when he started only eight Premier League games and slipped to the bottom of the central defensive pecking order, which was where he began the current campaign. In March 2022, he had heard his substitution in United’s Champions League exit against Atlético Madrid cheered by a section of the Old Trafford support, which surely influenced the Wembley crowd in his next England match – the friendly against Ivory Coast. Some of those present booed him.
