Maguire can now hold his head high ..unlike the others

HE might even, somehow, cop some stick for this performance because Harry Maguire always does.

The most famous forehead in football seems to be tattooed with a target, the Manchester United captain the easiest coconut to shy at.

Yet for much of this insipid England display, at least he was fired up, at least he looked ready to leave every last drop of effort out there, at least he got angry when things were going awry.

Faint praise? Maybe.

But there were also times when Maguire showed why Gareth Southgate has such faith in him.

He was selling dummies in the opposition penalty area, casually pulling off chest passes in the centre circle, flicking outsideof-the-boot passes across his own backline.

This was Maguire,

England-style, worthy of his 50 caps.

This was Maguire, a footballer who raises his game for his country like few others.

Sure, there was the odd rick, the odd shank into touch and probably too many sideways passes, but there was also the 40-yard leftfooted ping to the feet of his fellow Harry, the sprayed long-ranger to set Raheem Sterling free.

And there was plenty of trademark aerial dominance.

This is why Southgate trusts him almost implicitly, this is why Southgate was sending him out in England colours for a 50th time.

Defensively, Maguire is fundamentally old-fashioned and obviously not blessed with the pace and litheness of many of the world’s top central defenders.

But, contrary to recent evidence at United, he can time an intervention.

And, at times, he needed to, such was England’s shocking sluggishness for much of this game.

A potent threat to England had been complacency, the merit of their emphatic opening performance seemingly boosted by Iran’s cuffing of Wales.

It certainly looked that way as Jude Bellingham and Bukayo Saka sent passes astray and Mason Mount was barely able to put a foot right.

Some commentators were calling on Maguire to bring it out of defence more often.

To be fair, he did try on a couple of occasions but the Americans – snappy and athletic – were, all night, very alert to that threat.

And the general problem was Maguire was too busy clearing danger with the most famous forehead in football.

And talking of heads, there were not many England players who could hold them particularly high… but Maguire was one of them.