Why Gareth Southgate Always Picks Harry Maguire

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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.

Transcript

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.

06:20 The subscribe button is right there, the share button is right next to it.

06:24 We're doing daily football videos that are, in my humble opinion, not bad.

06:28 Until the next one though, I have of course been Adam Cleary @adamclearyclery on all the

06:31 socials and I will see you later.

06:35 Bye!

06:36 And that's it, that's the video, thank you so very much for watching and making it all

06:42 the way till the end.

06:43 Somebody's keen.

06:44 While you're here, please do consider subscribing to the Thoughtful 2 YouTube channel, we've

06:48 got loads of awesome football content dropping all through the week as well as an amazing

06:51 library of documentaries, player interviews and performance guides as well.

06:56 Until next time though, thank you once again for watching, I do hope you enjoyed yourself

07:00 and I'll see you soon.

07:01 Goodbye!

07:01 (upbeat music)

07:04 (upbeat music)

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