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Harry Maguire has asserted that he has come out the other side of his career slump and that he deserves his place in the latest England squad.
Ever since Gareth Southgate became manager of the England national team, Maguire has been one of his most trusted players. In fact, should he play against Brazil on Saturday, he will earn his 61st cap which draws him alongside legends such as Ray Wilson, Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer.
In an interview with The Times, the 31 year old confidently defended his place in the England squad.
“There’s loads of people who probably don’t think I should be in the squad. There are millions of people that think I should be”.
Speaking on his troubles last season, which saw him almost sold to West Ham in the summer he claimed, “I went through a difficult year where a lot of scrutiny came my way. I was Manchester United captain and the team didn’t perform well”.
“I had a season where I wasn’t playing as much as I’d like, Licha (Lisandro Martínez) and Rapha (Varane) were playing really well and the team were keeping a lot of clean sheets”.
Nonetheless, the 31 year old does not have a bad word to day about his current boss, Erik ten Hag, and praised him for how he handled the situation.
“Erik was always transparent with me, he always told me he believed in me, that he felt I could be part of his starting XI”.
Maguire also stated that he is at the top of his game and is over the rough patch of last season.
“I feel I’m performing really well for my club. I’m mentally strong. I’ve overcome a lot. I have great belief in my ability and what I can bring to a team. I’m quite good at switching off away from football. I have a good family and friends”.
The Sheffield native also compared the contexts of playing for a club like his old side Leicester instead of his current employers.
When Maguire had a strong tournament in 2018 when England reached the World Cup semi-finals he was playing for the Foxes and he claims that this coloured people’s perception of his form.
“Different clubs have different scrutiny on players and that has a big aspect when fans see him [Southgate] picking a squad. I could have played for Leicester and had a bad game and then had six good ones, a couple of bad ones, and everyone would think I’m in amazing form. If I did that for Manchester United . . . it doesn’t happen like that”.
“Every goal we concede is analysed, scrutiny comes and that’s the pressures of playing for Manchester United or playing for a big club. You see a lot with England careers. You get built up, built up, built up and then you’ve got to maintain that really high level to stay there otherwise you get shot down pretty quickly”.
Finally, the Englishman compared the criticism he has faced to former United and England players, Wayne Rooney and David Beckham.
“There’s cameras everywhere and you only have to look at the previous United players who have played for the country [who got scrutinised]. Beckham had a lot. Even Wayne [Rooney] had a lot of things said [about him] and he was one of the greatest players ever to play for his country”.
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