GARY Neville reckons Gareth Southgate will be “seriously” starting to consider dropping Harry Maguire at the World Cup.
But fellow Monday Night Football colleague Jamie Carragher believes the abuse the Manchester United star has been getting has been over the top.
Despite not starting a Premier League game for more than a month, Southgate kept his faith in Maguire by picking him from the off against Italy and Germany.
His decision didn’t pay off, though, after the 29-year-old conceded a penalty in the draw with Germany and also lost the ball which led to their second goal.
Speaking on MNF, Carragher said: “The criticism of Gareth Southgate for playing him because he wasn’t playing for Manchester United, I thought was nonsense.
“He’s been England’s best centre-back, just through his performances, in the two tournaments.
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“He was in team of the tournament in the last Euros.
“So, Gareth Southgate had to pick him, just to see where he was fitness wise.
“So, I had no problem picking him in the games, they obviously didn’t go well and that is then a big worry, because he doesn’t normally perform like that for England.
“What it does do, it creates a big problem for Harry Maguire and for the manager, because he wants to pick him and he wants him to be in the team.
“But I don’t think it’s a position he can go into a World Cup with if Harry Maguire is not playing for Manchester United.”
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Carragher is also unsure about his place in the starting XI into doubt, but completely disagrees with the way the ex-Leicester man has been treated.
He continued: “Also Maguire’s mental state, where he is confidence wise, the criticism he gets, which I feel is over the top, I think it’s a bit bullying.
“I think it’s got to that stage, certainly on social media, also ridiculing the lad, when you think of what he’s done, especially in an England shirt.
“You think of some of the great centre-backs that we played with, John Terry and Rio Ferdinand, probably the two best centre-backs we’ve ever see in the Premier League.
“But they still never achieved what Harry Maguire has done in an England shirt, getting to a semi-final and a final.
“I know it’s a team game and Harry Maguire is not as good as those players, but in an England shirt he’s achieved a lot.
“But I think it’s makes it very difficult for him to start at the World Cup if he’s not playing for Manchester United.”
Maguire missed United’s 6-3 defeat at Manchester City on Sunday through injury, which means he’s just played just 10 minutes across the last five league fixtures.
With that in mind, his best chance of game-time before the tournament gets underway next month is likely to come in Europe.
Therefore, Neville reckons that Southgate might have no choice but to look at alternative options at the heart of his defence.
He said: “I think it’s got to the point now whereby the injury he’s got, his form, I think Gareth Southgate will be seriously thinking of leaving him out of the team now, just to protect him.
“I think he’s making mistakes, nothing is going his way and I agree with Jamie, you can’t find your form in a World Cup, particularly this one, there’s no warm-up games, we finish on the Sunday, I think.
“Fulham play Manchester United in the last game on the 13th November and a week later you’re expected to be in form for the World Cup and he might not have played for two or three weeks for United, on top of the few weeks that he’s not played already for United.
“I just think now it’s getting to that point where Gareth Southgate will be thinking he will have to bring in other centre-backs.”
Neville compared Maguire’s current situation to some of his ex-United teammates, and hopes that he can come through the other side.
He added: “It’s interesting, though, you think about Harry Maguire at Manchester United and he’s obviously having a difficult moment there and you think about the players who have trodden that path before.
“David Beckham post-98, where the whole country was absolutely battering him and he had to come back and face that.
“You think of my brother in 2000 when he gave the penalty away and he was having effigies burned outside his house, you think of Wayne Rooney in 2006 when he got sent off against [Cristiano] Ronaldo, these are all Manchester United players.
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“You think of Marcus Rashford in 2021 when he was racially abused with Jadon Sancho, another Manchester United player, and [Bukayo] Saka.
“So, you look at Manchester United players who’ve trodden that path before Harry Maguire, he’s not alone here, he’s not the first person to feel his form has gone or he’s being vilified or he’s being picked on, and that’s how you feel at the time, it’s only you, all of the pressure is on you.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
