Jokes, errors and assists as Harry Maguire shows threats and vulnerabilities

What was your first reaction when the news came through that Harry Maguire should be available for England’s next assignment against the USA despite his groggy departure from the free-wheeling win against Iran?

If you are supporting Gareth Southgate’s team in this tournament, maybe you felt torn because, let’s face it, Maguire seems firmly established as the player England fans trust least.

Many think he is too accident-prone. England’s progress is accompanied by a nagging sense that, at some point, something might go wrong in defence and, almost inevitably, Maguire will be at the heart of it.

Maguire, in turn, is exposed to how hard-faced this sport can be. Attitudes have hardened. Football’s coming home? “It’s not coming home because of Harry Maguire,” read one banner being carried into the Khalifa International Stadium.

Others bore similar messages to belittle and pinpoint England’s centre-half. None was particularly clever or funny, but it did sum up the way the internet generation tend to think of the Manchester United defender.

OK, they were Iranian fans holding up these banners, but a cursory look at social media reveals your average England fan is uneasy, to say the least, that he continues to be a mandatory pick on big occasions.

Not everyone, therefore, will be willing to acknowledge there were mitigating circumstances for that moment, with England leading 4-0, when Maguire let Mehdi Taremi elude him to score Iran’s opening goal.

Maguire was beaten too easily. His response was heavy-footed and, yes, these were the moments when England fans might be forgiven for suggesting that a team that defends this obligingly cannot expect to win the World Cup.

Southgate made the same point afterwards and, as a result, did not sound as happy as might have been expected after a 6-2 win.

Yet, before sending Maguire to graze in the scapegoats’ paddock, it is worth analysing the sequence of events that led to Taremi slotting the ball past Jordan Pickford. Maguire had just waved to the dugout that he was feeling unwell and had blurry vision. As soon as the goal went in, he signalled he needed to go off. It was typical, perhaps, of Maguire’s luck that his disorientation coincided with one of the few occasions Iran attacked with real intent.

But a lot of those who are against him have firmly entrenched views and, unfortunately for Maguire, a goal of that nature will be held against him. England, as Southgate pointed out, have to be tighter at the back.

At the same time, let’s not go overboard about one aberration when Maguire ended up looking so wobbly it was tempting to think he must have taken a bang that had left him with concussion.

Yes, he might not be playing with anywhere near the same authority as at the last World Cup in Russia four years ago, when England’s fans viewed him much more favourably and the media was filled with affectionate stories about old ‘Slabhead’. But his performance against Iran was more than acceptable, barring one possibly unfortunate moment.

Maguire’s problem is that he is often unfortunate. He makes a habit of playing well, then ruining it with one slip-up. It happens to him too often. This, fundamentally, is why England fans fret about his involvement.

On a brighter note, however, here’s a statistic you probably thought you would never see: Maguire now joins Harry Kane in having more assists (two) at the World Cup than any other England player bar David Beckham since 1966. Indeed, Maguire’s capacity for making a nuisance of himself in the opposition penalty area was one of the features of England rattling up their biggest win of any of their opening games at a World Cup.

In the first half alone, Maguire headed against the crossbar, set up Bukayo Saka’s first goal, and ought to have been awarded a penalty after being manhandled to the ground in a more obvious infringement than the one that led to Iran’s late penalty.

Maguire, in short, was a constant menace for England at the set pieces that form a big part of their training-ground routines.

OK, that still won’t convince everyone that Southgate was right to abandon his rule that a footballer who is not playing regularly for his club should not expect to play for his country. Maguire is selected for what he does in his own penalty area, not the oppositions’, and the context around Iran’s first goal does not fully excuse him.

If he was feeling poorly, he ought to have done more to flag it up and made sure to halt the play earlier rather than carrying on and leaving himself so vulnerable. Southgate will want to scrutinise what happened and conduct his own investigation because, if it happens again, he knows that next time it might be more costly. Overall, it would be harsh to dwell too much on these moments when the good in Maguire’s performance outweighed the bad. Had it been 0-0 at the time, that would have been an entirely different story.

Providing he is given the all-clear, that means Maguire should be back in the team to face the USA on Friday. Then, like now, there will be supporters of both teams who consider him a danger to his own team.

Maguire has had to get accustomed to that kind of critique for longer than he would probably wish to remember. But he keeps getting picked and keeps coming back — his next England cap will be his 50th. It might even be time to remind ourselves that he has played a considerable part in England’s happiest moments of the Southgate era.

(Top photo: Matthew Ashton/AMA via Getty Images)