Harry Maguire: Michael Carrick’s arrival saved my England career

For another two hours, Harry Maguire’s England career was up in the air. Despite 64 caps he had not played for his country for 19 months and had been ignored, squad after squad, by Thomas Tuchel. Yet he knew he was back playing at his very best level. He had been fundamental to Manchester United’s resurgence.

If Tuchel wasn’t going to pick him now then, at 33, that was probably that. “I knew if I missed this camp, I don’t think I would have been back in the England set-up,” Maguire reflects.

He had just boarded a flight to Bournemouth with the United squad last Thursday afternoon when his WhatsApp pinged. It was Tuchel. “Can I give you a call?” the message read. But the plane was about to take off, so Maguire had to ask if they could speak later.

“No worries, any time after six,” Tuchel replied, and so there was Maguire, sitting in his seat, 30,000ft in the sky, airplane mode, asking himself: “Is this it? Am I back?” Or, “Is this going to be one of those ‘sorry, you just missed out’ calls?”

In the end, Tuchel informed Maguire he was in the 35-man party for the friendlies with Uruguay and Japan. “That 40 minutes [in the air to Bournemouth] was a long flight,” he says, with a grin.

“It’s amazing to be back. It’s something I’ve missed and when you don’t get picked in squads, when you’ve been a regular for six or seven years and playing every game, it’s tough.

“[The conversation with Tuchel] was short and sharp. He just said I thoroughly deserve to join up and be in the camp with my form at Manchester United. It was an amazing phone call.”

Maguire admits “there was a point” he felt he would never return and his first reaction was to tell his family, his crutch after disappointments like being surprisingly cut from Sir Gareth Southgate’s squad for Euro 2024.

“I think everyone didn’t know whether I’d be called up or not. I was more positive, but you just never know,” Maguire says. “Actually, my mum rang me up crying, bless her. She was in Spain on holidays with my nephew and she rang me up crying. I don’t know how many drinks she’d had.”

A number of factors brought Maguire back to the Three Lions fray. Tuchel was won round by his “super-strength” of “defending and attacking with his head” and just generally “super-solid” centre-back play, plus the coach likes a balance of youth and experience in his teams and squads.

Maguire has this camp to convince the German he should be one of what will probably be two trusty, seasoned, culture-leader No5s selected to support the younger (and recent first-choice) pair of Marc Guéhi and Ezri Konsa. So it could be Maguire, Dan Burn and John Stones competing for a couple of slots.

But the other factor is Michael Carrick. Every international hopeful needs to be getting showcased at club level and since being appointed interim head coach after the dismissal of Ruben Amorim, Carrick has returned United to four at the back — sparking upturns for the team and several individual players.

“Ruben was really good with me and I played pretty much every game under him when I was fit. But Michael has come in and changed the formation and is playing a back four. I personally prefer playing in a back four. The best part of my career has been in a back four,” Maguire says.

Amorim tended to put him in the centre of the three-man back line he stuck to so doggedly. “When you’re playing a back five and you’re that middle one, automatically people think you’re a little bit old, you can’t move as much and you get protected — which you actually do,” he says.

“But I’ve always said I much prefer playing in a back four. I feel like I can play more aggressive, play more on the front foot and I feel like that’s a big part of my game. There have been people saying that it does suit me playing in a back five, but I disagree. I feel I’m a defender who wants to defend forward, getting in duels against the attacker all the time.”

He wishes Amorim no ill. They have talked since the Portuguese coach’s sacking in January. “I really like Ruben, I think he’s got great ideas,” he says. “The ideas just didn’t work at Manchester United. I believe he’ll go on and have an amazing career and at his next club will probably go and win many, many football matches.

“It just didn’t click and us, as players, have to take a lot of responsibility for that as well.”

However, there is no escaping the improvement Carrick sparked. Maguire’s first league game after two months out with a thigh injury was in Carrick’s first match as interim, a 2-0 win against Manchester City, which United followed with a victory away to Arsenal, where Maguire was player of the match. They have since risen to third in the Premier League.

“Carrick’s been amazing. He’s tactically very, very good,” Maguire says. “He brought in some amazing staff. He’s got Jonathan Woodgate and Jonny Evans there, helping the younger defenders and giving all the defenders tips.”

Should Carrick get the job permanently? “Yeah, listen, it’s not up to us,” Maguire says. “We’ve got to finish the season strong and I think he should go right into the mix of the other candidates, and let the process begin.

“I’m sure it’s going to be a thorough process and it’s going to be a big summer. We know that for Manchester United we need bodies in, bodies to help the squad. We know we need improvement in the squad.”

And Maguire’s own future? His contract expires in the summer and since Janaury he has been free to speak to other clubs, but is discussing staying — potentially on a one-year deal with an option to extend.

“There’s been talks,” he says. “I think we’ll reach an agreement where it’s best for the club and myself. What that agreement is, I’m sure you’ll find out in the next few weeks.

“I think it’ll get sorted sooner rather than later, whether I stay or leave. I love the club. But it’s got to be right for myself and right for the club as well. I don’t want to be staying on sentimental value. I want to be staying because I want to be there and the club want me to drive them forward still, and they feel I’ve got a big part to play. If that’s the case, I’m sure we’ll sit down and reach something.”

Age mellows a player’s perspective and Maguire is philosophical about his England exile. The omission that hurt most was when, having used him in every single England game at the 2018 and 2022 World Cups and played him from the final group match onwards at Euro 2020, Southgate declined to take him to Euro 2024.

In fairness, Maguire had a calf problem which he aggravated while pushing to return for United in the FA Cup final and then again when he subsequently joined up with England and was perhaps impatient to prove his fitness.

He understands why Tuchel previously overlooked him. He was injured for the German’s first camp last March then could not find rhythm, thanks to niggles, in the first half of this season. Should he go to the World Cup, he would gladly fulfil any role the manager requires.

Chatting at St George’s Park after training, he is asked what his sales pitch to Tuchel would be.

“I don’t think I need to sell it to the manager,” Maguire says. “I’m in a position now in my career where it is not so much about myself, not so much about the individual. I am 33 years old. I am just about the team now, help the team move forward and to win something.

“If I play one minute at the World Cup or every game of the World Cup, I will still do everything I can to make sure this country is successful. I feel like that’s where I am at in my career — it is not about me, playing at the World Cup to try to say I am the best defender in the world. I want to be part of a group.”

Tuchel is right about Maguire’s super-strength being his head. Playing for United is to play under a microscope to which hundreds of millions of eyes are glued — and the club’s period of toil has made viewers progressively more unsympathetic.

Yet Maguire’s resilience has always been remarkable. When there has been criticism, he has ignored it. When he has lost his place, he has grabbed it back with both hands. He has never hidden and always bounced back.

“I have great belief in myself,” he says. “I’m a top-level centre back. You don’t play seven years at Manchester United, under the scrutiny we’re under, especially in a centre-back position where every goal that you concede is analysed, scrutinised — or play for England at three major tournaments, kicking every single ball, every minute of every game in those tournaments, taking penalties — without having the belief that you deserve to be there.

“When I wasn’t playing at Manchester United, I was still getting picked by England, when Gareth was in charge. But I feel like my form for United probably for three years now has been a high level.

“It has been a bit stop-start over the past two years with my injuries, but I’m in a good rhythm now. When available, I’ve been starting for United. We all know I had a dip in form for six to nine months, one season probably. But since that, I feel like I played really, really well.”

A colleague who appears to share his bouncebackability is Kobbie Mainoo. The 20-year-old is also restored to England’s squad having enjoyed a renaissance at United under Carrick.

“A high-level player,” Maguire says. “[Amorim] wanted Bruno [Fernandes] back and more of a defensive one to play with Bruno. It just didn’t fit the eye of Ruben, but Kobbie’s been fantastic since he came back in and thoroughly deserved his spot here. I’m sure he’ll go out there and show [Tuchel] what he’s all about.”

You would bet on Maguire doing so too.

England friendlies

Friday v Uruguay, 7.45pm

TV ITV1

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