Manchester United Captain Harry Maguire heaps to the defense of England head coach Gareth Southgate after England drew 1-1 with Italy at the Molineux Stadium.
England saw their 21-match unbeaten run brought to an end after a defeat to Hungary and are yet to record a win in the last three games in the National League campaign. The three lions have only scored one goal in those matches with the only goal coming through a Penalty.
People have started to raise questions about Gareth Southgate’s approach and tactics to those games. with others claiming that he should be sacked before the World Cup in November.
However, Harry Maguire had one of his best games in recent times for club and country against Italy, slammed those criticisms, and insisted Southgate is the right man for the Job after taking them to the semi-finals of the World Cup and reaching the finals of the Euro 2020.
What did Maguire say?
In an interview with BBC Radio five live, Maguire said: “His record over the last four years speaks for itself – when you play at the highest level there’s pressure and scrutiny and criticism, and every game that you don’t win there will always be criticism.
“The last few games we haven’t scored enough goals but we got to a World Cup semi-final playing this way and we were a penalty shoot-out away from winning a Euros in our home country which would’ve been one of the greatest moments this country has ever seen.
“Let the football do the talking – everyone gets behind us for the World Cup and keeps pushing us, we’re doing our best to improve.
“We’ve shown there’s still areas to improve and if we want to lift the World Cup we have to strive to improve and every day that we’re together we have to aim for that because we want to set high standards and the next one is to lift the trophy.”
Meanwhile, Gareth Southgate claims England’s recent goal-scoring woes is not a general problem but his player lacks precision when they get to the penalty area.
Speaking to Channel 4 after the 1-1 draw with Italy, the England head coach said: “We are trying to move the ball through a good, well-organized team. We gave the ball to our forward players, we gave them all a go and tried to refresh it so that sharpness in the final third is not there. I was pleased with the general performance.
“We have been too reliant on Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling and other players have to step into that space. A number of them have been able to do it with their clubs but have not converted to international level.”
England is bottom of their group with one point, their next match is against Italy away from home on the 23 September 2022. Southgate will hope they get something out of the game.
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