Harry Maguire is having a Really Bad Time right now

The unrelenting criticism seems to have shattered the defender’s confidence

It’s hard not to feel a little bad for Harry Maguire right now.

The center back is pretty much always subject to unrelenting criticism, and has now been benched for Manchester United after a rough start to the season. His crisis of confidence appears to have transferred over to England.

Maguire committed two errors that directly led to goals for Germany in Monday’s 3-3 Nations League draw at Wembley.

The first mistake was egregious. Maguire passed the ball directly to Jamal Musiala and the German attacker then wrong-footed the England defender and was taken down for a penalty. İlkay Gündoğan stepped up from the spot to make it 1-0.

Maguire later would give the ball away high up the pitch, leading to a German counter that culminated in Kai Havertz finding the back of the net.

Despite his poor form, Maguire at the moment appears very much to be in Gareth Southgate’s starting lineup. He started both of England’s games this window and Southgate has continued to publicly back him.

But Maguire is hopelessly out of form and low on confidence. His teammate for club and country, Luke Shaw, admitted that all of the criticism may be affecting him.

“Harry is an amazing player, an amazing character,” Shaw told BBC Radio 5 Live after the Germany match. “He’s taken a lot of stick – probably more than I’ve ever seen before in football.

“He never hides away, he’s always there. You can have people who can hide away and not want to be in the spotlight. He keeps putting himself in the spotlight, it shows the strength and character he’s got.

“Everybody knows he’s an unbelievable player. At the moment the confidence might not be there because it could feel like the whole world is against him.”

The harsh criticism has, at least in part, appeared to give way to pity for some observers.

On BBC Radio 5 Live, former England striker Chris Sutton added: “Blimey, you wouldn’t have a heart if you didn’t feel sorry for him.”

But Southgate can’t let sympathy or emotion cloud his decisions ahead of the World Cup. Maguire was a rock for England last summer as it reached the final of the European Championship, but it’s hard to imagine he’ll see the field much in Qatar unless things change massively between now and November.

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