Gareth Southgate tends to stick by the players he trusts in the England squad.
Even though Manchester United’s Harry Maguire and Man City’s Kelvin Phillips don’t feature regularly for their clubs, Southgate has continued to select them for international call-ups.
Both players featured for England last night as they beat Italy 3-1 to book their place at Euro 2024. A brace from Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford strike sealed the win.
However, after the match, Southgate pressed clubs that his players represent by admitting he would prefer to see Maguire and Phillips playing regularly in the Premier League.
Southgate was still impressed with their performance for the Three Lions. He knows that as England manager he has no say in what happens at clubs.
Speaking to Channel 4 after the game, England’s manager spoke about the pair’s lack of matches in the Premier League and how it is not hindering their chances on the international stage.
“Ideally, we would have everyone playing regularly, but you can see Kalvin, Harry Maguire, the questions have been about them playing at club level but they were both outstanding tonight,” Southgate said, as quoted by the Manchester Evening News.
“They are so important for us. Yes, of course we would like to see them playing more, but they are up against very good players at their club. Every time he [Phillips] plays for us he does a fantastic job.”
On a brutally honest note, I think Erik ten Hag has too much on his plate at the moment to be concerned about what Southgate thinks about Maguire’s game time.
The United manager can only pick the best defence he has available to him from one week to another.
Both United and City return to Premier League action on Saturday and Maguire could start, like he did against Brentford prior to the international break. It may depend on Raphael Varane’s fitness, although Victor Lindelof hasn’t covered himself in glory this season.
The Reds travel to Sheffield United on Saturday night for an 8pm kick-off.
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