Was Gareth Southgate right to defend Harry Maguire?

National World - LocalTV

Harry Maguire has come in for lots of criticism of late, which has caused England Manager, Gareth Southgate to publicly defend him. But given Southgate’s own previous comments, was this the right thing to do?

Transcript

00:00 In England colours, defender Harry Maguire has almost certainly seen some of the best moments of his career.

00:06 Helping to keep several clean sheets in huge international tournament matches,

00:10 as well as scoring in both a European Championship and World Cup quarter-final, he is deserving of some praise.

00:17 His club form for Manchester United in recent times however has been lacking.

00:21 This season he has yet to play a minute in the league and has had the club captaincy taken off him,

00:26 and yet found himself starting in a qualifying match for England against Ukraine at the weekend.

00:32 Many fans have questioned how a player who has not been selected for his club side is playing for the national team.

00:39 He then scored an own goal against Scotland, causing questions to pile up.

00:44 His manager's staunch defence of him was admirable, but given Gareth Southgate's own comments

00:49 about picking players based on form alone, claims of hypocrisy are rife.

00:55 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Category

Transcript

Recommended