You know the drill by now. Harry Maguire gets picked to represent his country and the football-supporting population guffaws as one. I’d try to imagine what it feels like to have the whole nation saying you aren’t good enough, but it’s one of my night terrors already. For all the physical requirements to make it as an elite footballer, a thick skin ranks higher than most.
For all the continued outrage – and it will never go away – this is easily the most explainable of all Maguire’s selections since the World Cup. He is not playing for Manchester United, but then that was basically the case last season anyway. Tyrone Mings might well be out for the season.
John Stones has a hip injury and thus hasn’t played a minute in the Premier League. Eric Dier’s international career is as over as his Tottenham career. Conor Coady is in the Championship. Ben White went home from the World Cup and is, for now, out of the picture.
Beat Ukraine in Poland next weekend and England will have virtually secured their qualification for Euro 2024 with half their campaign remaining. With Stones and Luke Shaw both absent, you can see why England’s manager might not want to lose at least three-quarters of the back four that won in Naples in March. So Gareth Southgate has picked everyone else and then included Maguire as his experienced head and his ballast.
This will have to stop at some point. Even Southgate knows that, and there is nobody in the game who trusts Maguire more.
On Thursday at St George’s Park, England’s manager accepted that the situation was less than ideal with Raphael Varane and Shaw suffering ill-timed injuries that may keep the central defender at United, where he is barely wanted. Break in case of emergency? At Old Trafford, Maguire already looks broken.
Within this crop of England central-defending newbies – who are of various ages but share only eight senior caps between them – lies England’s potential short and long-term future. Lewis Dunk is the Maguire type – heading, tackling, leading – although he is also a fine distributor.
Marc Guehi has, as Southgate said on Thursday, already been built into the framework of England squads. Fikayo Tomori is the populist candidate but Serie A is a different beast to the Premier League and reservations are not without merit.
Levi Colwill, the only uncapped defender or midfielder in the squad, is the blue-eyed boy: quick, agile, left-footed, ludicrously mature for 20, capable of defending the box and progressive passes that would make your aunt blush.
He is the prince regent to Maguire’s position in the team and, potentially, the key to England’s next age of build-up play.
You know the cliches of the international break already, accelerated by the creeping uber-dominance of the club game over everything else: the sighs, the moans and the “I’m not actually watching but that will not stop me from making a sweeping, damning verdict”.
That is Southgate’s cross to bear. He has been here for too long, is too pragmatic and has to pick between too many of all of your favourites to be popular.
But England are about to embark upon something new. The attack is fluid and exciting (no, we don’t want to think about Harry Kane’s age yet – sssshhh). The midfield is led by two £100m early 20-somethings who have both moved clubs this summer. Now it is time for the defensive overhaul.
That might not come to fruition during games in Wroclaw or Glasgow over the next fortnight, but it will probably be birthed at St George’s Park in between. Now begin the auditions to lead England from the back and onward.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/P6nmU2d
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