England manager Gareth Southgate says he is willing to jeopardise his reputation as a coach and back out-of-sorts Manchester United captain Harry Maguire.
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Maguire has been criticised a lot in recent months for his form at club level, with United often failing to get the desired results when he played, a trend that seemingly started when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was still manager of the club.
Fast-forward nearly a year later and the Red Devils are in a much better position in the Premier League due to several reasons, with some feeling the 29-year-old's exclusion from the starting XI of late has been a factor.
Since his latest game as a starter, a 4-0 defeat to Brentford, the Mancunians have gone on a four-match winning streak in the league, conceding only two goals.
Despite his poor form, Southgate, a former centre-back himself, has insisted that Maguire is still an important player for England and is willing to put his reputation on the line for the Sheffield-born footballer.
"Clearly, it's not an ideal situation [with Maguire.] We're only a few weeks on from preseason so, physically, if they've had a few 90 minutes, that's fine," Southgate told members of the media ahead of England's UEFA Nations League clash against reigning European champions Italy, as per ESPN.
"Another seven to eight weeks, that does start to become more complicated. But he is an important player for us and it's important to back our best players.
"Whatever reputation I have, I'm putting it on there."
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Friday night's clash against the Azzurri is a rematch of the 2020 UEFA European Championship final, which the southern Europeans won at Wembley Stadium, and it will be important that the English secure victory as they have failed to register a win in the 2022/23 Nations League thus far.
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