‘Superb’ ball-playing centre-half Maguire earns high praise from boss Southgate
MANAGER Gareth Southgate last night hailed England’s Harry Maguire as one of the best ballplaying defenders in Europe.
The former Sheffield United and Hull City centre-half will step out on home turf tonight as England take on Switzerland in a friendly at Leicester City’s King Power Stadium.
Fresh from signing a bumper new five-year contract with the Foxes, Maguire is expected to be one of only two from the starting XI in Saturday’s Nations League defeat against Spain to retain his place as Southgate rings the changes.
“I was first and foremost delighted he was fit and available,” said the Three Lions’ chief about a defender who was wanted by Manchester United during the summer.
“The reason for that being when I was watching him during last season I knew that on the biggest stage he would be able to perform and excel.
“I was so pleased he was going to have the opportunity to do that and he delivered.
“He is a superb defender, he is really effective in both penalty boxes and the way that he brings the ball forward and can use the ball is as good as anything in Europe, in my opinion.
“I think he proved to himself as much as anything that against some top players and some top teams in the lead-up to the finals, during the finals and again Saturday night that he can compete with the very best.”
Southgate’s praise of Maguire caps a remarkable 15 months for the defender. Having been relegated with Hull he moved to Leicester for £17m and last season swept the board at the club’s end-of-season awards.
Then, in the summer, Maguire was a mainstay of the England team that reached the World Cup semi-finals.
It was all quite a contrast from two years earlier when he had attended Euro 2016 with his friends as a fan.
Maguire’s presence in defence will be reassuring for Southgate, whose side can create an unwanted slice of history tonight.
A Switzerland victory will mean the Three Lions have lost four consecutive games for the first time in their history.
Not that the England chief is paying too much attention to the statistics on a night when he is set to rest captain Harry Kane and a host of regulars.
“Statistics can be whatever you want them to be,” said Southgate. “I will have to live with whatever people want to say about my record, relegation (in the Nations League), whatever. I am comfortable in my own skin.
“That focus will come on me and I am not concerned about it otherwise I would make decisions just to boost my win record.
“In the build-up to last summer we played Germany, France and Spain. If it was about my win record I probably wouldn’t make those decisions. Decisions are made to develop the team.
“We have got players who are an important part of our squad. There is a lot of competition for places and close calls for who the first-choice players will be.
“A lot of the guys coming into the team (against Switzerland) have had zero minutes for their clubs. Ultimately the right thing is to give them game time, give them international matches, that’s the reason we do it. It’s important they all feel involved.”
Eric Dier will captain a side that is expected to feature the likes of Jack Butland, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Fabian Delph, James Tarkowski and Danny Welbeck.
“We talked a bit after the World Cup about the demands of the modern player,” explained Southgate when asked about his plans to rest key men. “Everyone has got to play a part in that, but the clubs own the player and they have got to do the right thing for themselves.
“Normally we have not got opposing objectives and the clubs would be holding their breath and hiding behind their sofas watching our teams go out.”
ENGLAND V SWITZERLAND
INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLY
AS OF last night, a little over 1,500 tickets were still available for tonight’s international friendly between England and Switzerland.
For those advocating more Three Lions games being taken away from Wembley and out on the road this inability to sell out the fixture at Leicester City’s 30,000 capacity King Power Stadium is viewed as something of a blow.
Just two months ago the national team appeared in the World Cup semi-finals so, the theory goes, there should be a clamour to watch Gareth Southgate’s men, even for a friendly against Switzerland.
Ticket prices that peak at £45 and £55 do not help, of course. But what may also be a factor is that the good folk of Leicester have long memories, the city’s previous taste of international football in 2003 having descended into farce thanks to no fewer than 43 players taking part amid a multitude of substitutions.
Sven Goran Eriksson, who had form in this respect, made ten changes that night against Serbia and Montenegro with only David James playing the full 90 minutes.
Worse still, no fewer than four players sported the captain’s armband on a night when the Three Lions won 2-1 but turned off huge swathes of the crowd, many having resorted to making their own entertainment long before the end by peppering the pitch with paper aeroplanes.
With this in mind maybe it should not be too much of a surprise that football fans in the East Midlands have thought twice about handing over their hard earned cash for tonight’s friendly against the Swiss.
Southgate, of course, will not treat supporters or the armband with the same contempt as Eriksson did all those years ago.
Sure, there will be changes tonight. Up to nine of them, in fact, with captain and striker Harry Kane, of Tottenham, set to lead the list of absentees after looking jaded in the weekend defeat to Spain.
But there will still be plenty for the Three Lions’ chief and the crowd to ponder, not least how England go about trying to find a way of winning without their talismanic goalscoring leader.
Kane has scored 14 goals in 14 appearances under Southgate. It is the kind of output that simply cannot be guaranteed elsewhere, particularly after Jamie Vardy’s decision to step away from international duty.
“There aren’t many English strikers playing,” admitted the 48-year-old former defender. “There is obviously some older ones who have good goalscoring records at club level, but I am not sure that is necessarily the route we want to go down.
“We are hopeful that a couple of the younger ones will start to get games and develop.
“I still have a lot of faith in the likes of (Liverpool’s Dominic) Solanke in particular, who I think has been outstanding at every age level. But I can’t rule out anyone because if people play well it would be foolish to ignore them.”
In the absence of Vardy following his recent retirement from international football, Harry Maguire will be the big focus for the Leicester crowd.
“It has been a crazy last couple of years for myself,” said the Mosborough-born 25-year-old. “I think from the summer, just the experience of playing in big games, at a World Cup, playing in high-pressure games.
“In my career I haven’t really done that so far, so to go out there and play in a World Cup – probably the biggest tournament in the world – and play under the pressures that were there, it gives me a great belief that I can go and have another good season.”
Maguire’s stellar performances in Russia led to summer interest from Manchester United, but he stayed loyal to the Foxes and recently signed a new deal until 2023.
“Obviously after the World Cup I came back and sat down with the owners and they reiterated what they wanted to do,” he added.
“There was a little bit of interest there and then. But I wanted to play for this club and I am now looking forward to the future, and where we can go as a club.”
Such a sentiment guarantees Maguire a hero’s welcome tonight as England return to Leicester after a little over 15 years away.
Hopefully it will be an occasion to savour and far removed from that non event against Serbia and Montengero under Eriksson.
Nights such as the one that 30,900 fans had to endure at the then Walker’s Stadium were why UEFA started looking into ways of reducing the lack of meaningless friendlies, a process that bore fruit last weekend with the launch of the Nations League.
It is to be hoped the next time the FA choose to take the national team on the road to, say, Old Trafford or Anfield, it will be for a competitive fixture.
Only then can we get a true picture as to whether the rest of the country really does have the appetite to match that of their counterparts in the capital.
I wanted to play for this club and I am looking forward to the future. Harry Maguire, on staying with Leicester after interest from Manchester United.