Harry Maguire is having his worst-ever season at Man United, but remains a permanent fixture in Gareth Southgate's England team. We look at the reasons why.
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00:00 Harry Maguire is having one of the worst seasons in his entire club career and yet when the
00:09 England squad rolls around, without fail, Gareth Southgate picks him.
00:13 Hello everybody, Adam Cleary, 442, and you know it, it's the question that dominates
00:17 every single international break.
00:19 If you're an England fan, why is Harry Maguire seemingly undroppable in this Gareth Southgate
00:24 squad and, well, believe it or not, there is actually a reason.
00:28 I'm going to show you.
00:29 So if you can catch your mind back a couple of days, this is England versus Italy as they
00:32 set up.
00:33 They were both in a 4-3-3.
00:34 There he is, that's Harry Maguire left-sided centre-back in the back four and the reason
00:38 we're going to this game is because it included a moment around 50 odd minutes in that could
00:42 only be described as Harry Maguire doing a Harry Maguire.
00:46 Now England, whatever their faults, are usually a very well organised team.
00:49 When they have to defend, they all get nice and compact.
00:50 When they move up the pitch, they all move as a unit.
00:52 But sometimes football just happens, doesn't it?
00:55 And on the occasions where football just happens, Harry Maguire is occasionally guilty of making
00:58 very bad decisions as a defender.
01:01 You'll have seen him do this a few times but it happened in the Italy game.
01:03 When England get stretched and a ball is played from the midfield into an attacker somewhere
01:08 in England's final third, Harry Maguire does exactly the wrong thing and gets caught out.
01:12 As the ball comes in, he breaks out of the defensive line to try and get an early challenge
01:17 in to either force the player to move backwards or to maybe even win the ball.
01:21 Except what the really good attackers will do is they will recognise him charging out
01:24 of this space, they will knock the ball off to a teammate, they will get him turned, leave
01:28 him all at sea and then get into the space he has just vacated.
01:31 He absolutely loves making that run.
01:33 You can almost hear John Stones going "Harry, no!" when he does it but he does it all the
01:38 same.
01:39 And because it is a very poor decision, his teammates can't anticipate it, they can't
01:42 get back over and cover quick enough, someone gets played to on goal and they're going to
01:45 have another go here.
01:47 *groans*
01:49 Anyway, now this just happened against Italy but you've definitely seen him do it before.
01:55 Look, here he is doing it again and every time he does it, it ends up all over social
01:59 media, people say he's absolutely rubbish, they can't understand why he's in the team
02:02 and the cycle repeats again and again and again and again and again and again and again.
02:05 But the reason I'm here today my friends is to tell you that while this is a massive problem
02:09 with Harry Maguire's game, when it comes to playing for this England squad, that is pretty
02:14 much the only major problem with Harry Maguire's game.
02:17 Yeah, look, I know, I can already hear the scoffs through the screen and to be honest
02:20 I can scarcely believe it myself but I'm just going to really quickly show you what it is
02:23 he brings to this England side and hopefully his selection will make a little bit more
02:27 sense.
02:28 So obviously it varies by opponent and situation but normally when England have the ball at
02:31 the back and they're trying to make something happen, they end up with this little four
02:34 thing going on between Pickford, Stones, Maguire and one of the central midfielders, usually
02:38 Declan Rice.
02:39 This gives you some nice passing angles that you can knock it about quite easily, the fullbacks,
02:43 they'll quite happily come back to join in but what England want to do is keep the ball
02:46 in this sort of area in their own third for long enough that it creates space in the final
02:51 third for a line-breaking pass.
02:53 And what I mean by line-breaking is if you imagine this is their forward line that's
02:56 pressing the defenders, this is their midfield line that's marking the midfielders, England
02:59 want to be patient enough with the ball at the back that somebody can get a bit of space,
03:04 they can hit a line through both those lines, they get turned and they're in.
03:08 And they're actually pretty good at doing this, like you saw it all through the Italy
03:11 game and all through the Ukraine game, either Stones or Maguire getting a ball into either
03:14 Bellingham or Henderson when they're in a really good position and they've got a bit
03:18 of space to play in.
03:19 And fundamentally the reason Harry Maguire is in this England team is because these passes
03:22 are really hard.
03:24 They require good vision, good intelligence and also excellent technical ability because
03:28 it is kind of a risky move to do because if you've got midfielders who are sort of pushing
03:32 up field and pulling away from their markers and you misplace that pass, all of a sudden
03:37 you're in real trouble there.
03:38 And the reason Harry Maguire is an automatic pick for England is because he's really, really
03:42 good at those kind of passes.
03:44 Just a quick look at all of his passing numbers here, despite the fact he's been out of the
03:47 Manchester United side, hasn't played that much football in the last 365 days, which
03:51 is what this graph covers, he's still almost in the top 5% of European football for the
03:57 number of long passes.
03:59 The really interesting stat though is this, switches.
04:01 Because as much as England like to play this pass between the lines or into the fullbacks,
04:04 they also are not afraid to switch the ball to the opposite side of the pitch if that
04:08 is where the space appears.
04:09 You saw Kane do this for his goal against Ukraine.
04:12 The England side had sort of moved over to the left-hand side, which is given, let me
04:15 just demonstrate, Saka loads of room on the right.
04:18 Kane received the ball around here, put it all the way out to that side and then lo and
04:21 behold, Saka gets across it and Kane gets the goal.
04:24 England are not afraid of the old school ground switch it.
04:28 Also his short passing numbers are really good, like for all the problems people have
04:30 with England's defence, you very rarely see Maguire, Pickford or Stones ever give the
04:34 ball away or concede a cheap throw in or lose possession when they're in that build-up stage.
04:39 Also he's not the best at this, but he's still in like the top 20% in Europe for progressive
04:43 carries, which means that when they're knocking it around and it's just not really happening,
04:46 he's the one who tends to get on the ball and just make that run into the centre of
04:50 the pitch, which sort of pulls the rest of the defence with him and all of a sudden the
04:52 midfielder's got to decide if they're going to engage him, which of course creates a bit
04:56 of extra space.
04:57 It's not his main job, but he does do it and it is important.
05:01 So why does Gareth Southgate always pick Harry Maguire?
05:03 Well because England are a possession-based team, they're a passing-based team and Harry
05:07 Maguire is one of the best centre-backs in the world, sorry, for progressing and passing
05:12 the ball.
05:13 And he's just a pretty solid defender at the same time.
05:15 Like I know he's guilty of that rush of blood and England do concede goals that way, but
05:18 by and large, England as a defensive unit are pretty solid.
05:22 That's kind of an okay weakness to accept for everything he brings to the team, I think.
05:26 And just as one final point, players get selected for their national teams, for any national
05:31 team, based on their performances for the national team.
05:33 And then if you're out of form or you're out of favour with your club side, yes obviously
05:37 the manager has to keep that in mind, but bottom line, if you play well for your country,
05:41 you should keep playing for your country.
05:42 And like it or not my friends, Harry Maguire and pretty much any other player in this side
05:46 you would care to pick on, does usually play pretty well for England.
05:50 There's Jordan Pickford of course, in his natural position of his arms up going "Wap
05:54 your love the way of me like how we are the lads!"
05:57 So why does Harry Maguire continue to get picked at left-sided centre-back for England?
06:02 Well, because Harry Maguire continues to be the best option at left-sided centre-back
06:06 for England.
06:07 Doesn't matter if you like it, doesn't matter if I like it, he just is.
06:11 But no, you're right, good point, he does have a head that looks like a massive paving
06:13 slab so let me know in the comments below whether you would pick him for England and
06:16 if you wouldn't, who would you play instead?
06:17 But in the meantime though, thank you so much for joining us on Thoughtful 2.
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06:28 Until the next one though, I have of course been Adam Cleary @adamclearyclery on all the
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06:35 Bye!
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06:42 the way till the end.
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