Maguire has Southgate’s full backing after red
Gareth Southgate threw his support behind Harry Maguire after the out-of-sorts defender’s costly sending off in England’s shock Nations League loss to Denmark.
Three days on from impressively coming back to beat Belgium, Christian Eriksen fired home a controversially-awarded penalty to seal a 1-0 victory in front of empty stands at Wembley.
Frustration boiled over after the final whistle as Reece James was sent off for dissent, but the fallout from England’s first home defeat since September 2018 is sure to focus on Manchester United’s Maguire.
Having started the campaign poorly after a truncated pre-season overshadowed by a well-documented Greek court case, the world’s most expensive defender received his marching orders after 31 minutes.
Maguire could have no argument with either booking and Southgate has backed him to come through this sticky period, saying “he has been getting all sorts (of criticism) for a while from people who should know better”.
Asked to clarify those comments, the England boss said: “No, I don’t think it needs elaborating on. But he’s having a difficult period and in these periods you learn a lot about yourself, you learn a lot about other people. You learn who’s there for you in those difficult times.
“He’ll come through it, he’ll be a better player and a stronger man for it. To go down to 10 men is costly for the team, but we fully back him, we fully support him.
"He showed on Sunday why we think so much of him with his performance against Belgium. He’ll get through this period and he’ll be back to his best.”