Mockery of Maguire does no one any good but he is running out of time to make himself an asset again

DELE ALLI was in the England starting XI that played against Croatia in the World Cup semi-final in the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow four years ago. His star has fallen so fast it feels like a surprise to see his name on the teamsheet. He is the only player from that time who has lost his reputation more precipitously than Harry Maguire.

Maguire was one of the linchpins of England’s success in Russia. He was a colossus at the back for Gareth Southgate’s side, our own dependable, formidable version of an ambling Alp. Goals from him and Alli helped the side ease their way past Sweden in Samara in the last eight. The BBC report of the game included a description of the first goal that began: ‘Maguire, outstanding once more...’

Things have changed. Maguire’s form has suffered in the chaos and drift at Manchester United — ‘disappointing end to a season full of lows’, he wrote on Twitter last month — and he has gone from being one of the most admired players in the national team to everyone’s favourite scapegoat. The criticism he receives, criticism on an epic scale, long ago crossed a line into cruelty and mockery.

Making fun of Maguire has become a match-day ritual for many on social media. ‘Viewers brutally mock Harry Maguire,’ one website headline read after footage of him being nutmegged by a David de Gea save in the build-up to a Kevin De Bruyne goal in the Manchester derby last season ‘went viral’.

‘Man Utd’s Harry Maguire mocked after Armando Broja turns him inside-out,’ another headline said after more viral footage ‘emerged’ earlier this year.

SPURS’ Cristian Romero laughed in his face after Maguire scored an owngoal in a match between the two sides last season. ‘Maguire mocked for marking Aaron Wan-Bissaka in build-up to Southampton goal,’ another website headline read during lockdown.

You’re getting the picture. Mockery has become a theme with Maguire. Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies ridiculed him recently when he professed amazement that Maguire, not Cristiano Ronaldo, was United captain. ‘You are Ronaldo, one of the greatest players ever,’ Davies said, ‘and what’s his name is your captain? Harry Maguire is your captain?’

Maguire was jeered by England fans during the March friendly against Ivory Coast at Wembley, something that felt like a throwback to uglier times and met with a withering response from Jordan Henderson. ‘Harry Maguire has been a colossus for England,’ said the Liverpool skipper. ‘Without him, the progress made at the last two tournaments would not have been possible. To be booed at his home stadium for no reason? What have we become?’

What we have become, partly, is a nation that professes itself dissatisfied with Southgate as manager even though he took us to that World Cup semi-final in 2018 and the European final last summer.

He has achieved more with a younger group of players than Terry Venables, Sven Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello ever could when they were in charge.

Yes, Maguire’s form has been poor for United, in particular, and, yes, he deserves some of the criticism he is getting but the intensity and the unpleasantness of some of it is a product of the new culture of entitlement that has settled over English football. The success over which Southgate has presided and of which Maguire has been a key component is not enough any more.

It was still happening on Tuesday night during England’s Nations League draw with Germany in Munich. Not the booing. But the mockery and the relentless scapegoating. In the first half, Maguire was rolled by Kai Havertz in the build-up to a disallowed Germany goal, an incident which unleashed an outpouring of ridicule on social media. You guessed it — the footage went viral.

His treatment long ago reached the point where it was uncomfortable. Criticise him for his naivety in getting involved in a fracas on holiday in Mykonos, sure, and criticise

him for his form, of course. That’s part of the game. But the intensity of the mockery makes you wonder how much more Maguire can take. And how much more he should be allowed to take.

Southgate has stayed loyal to him because he is a loyal man and Maguire has done very little to let him down in an England shirt. The opposite, in fact. But his performance against Germany will have left the England manager worried. He would have been hoping that Maguire might have started to play his way back into form by now but there is little sign of that happening.

IN the Allianz Arena, Maguire, not surprisingly, looked like a player desperately short of confidence. He was not directly to blame for the Germany goal, scored by Jonas Hofmann, but that does not change the fact that it was a goal England’s defence should have done more to prevent. Maguire looked uncomfortable, too, when faced with the dancing feet of Jamal Musiala, the game’s best player. He was hardly alone in that.

He has not lost his ability. The colossus of 2018 is still there somewhere. He can become an asset again one day. But, with the World Cup fast approaching, Maguire has lost his authority. He is, for now, more of a weakness than a strength. He should not be a figure of fun. He is not a raging liability. But he is someone who is filling a position that could be improved.

It almost feels now as if Maguire has become a victim twice over of the criticism aimed at him. His treatment at the hands of the booboys and the meme-makers has made Southgate’s dilemma more thorny. If he replaces Maguire now, if he takes him out of the line of fire, he may feel as if he has given in to the mob and cast one of his stalwarts adrift.

If it were someone else, maybe he would be allowed to have a little time away from the spotlight but when you are Manchester United captain, there is no such thing as respite. Maguire can be our colossus again but with Qatar in view, he is running out of time to rediscover the player he used to be.