Gareth Southgate says he never considered dropping Harry Maguire for this month's England internationals - and denied he is guilty of “double standards” after omitting fellow Manchester United players Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho.
Maguire has endured a difficult season for United since helping England to the final of Euro 2020 but today retained his place in Southgate's squad, alongside Crystal Palace's Marc Guehi and Arsenal's Ben White.
Fikayo Tomori, Eric Dier, Trevoh Chalobah and Max Kilman are among the centre-halves in better form than Maguire who did not make the cut.
But the United captain played a key role in England's runs to the semi-final of the last World Cup and their near-miss in the summer, and Southgate has maintained that he remains one of England's best centre-halves.
“I don’t think it ever crossed our mind not to select Harry Maguire for this squad," the England boss said after naming his squad for this month's friendlies against Switzerland and the Ivory Coast.
“He’s been a key part of the starting XI that got us to the World Cup semi-final and a European Championship final.
“I know the club are going through a difficult period, but you’ve got to look at who are our best players, and the core of the team, and he’s in that group. With no doubt in my mind that he’s one of our best centre-backs. Form, in that sense, is temporary.
“There’s also, in our forward areas, perhaps a lot more competition for some of those wide places. I will always be accused of double standards on picking on form, but there are nuances to that, in that we’re not picking the 100-metre finalists here, where the fastest time wins and it’s all very clear.
“There’s a more difficult path to selecting a football team and selecting a squad. But Harry now has over 40 caps, is consistently a strong performer for us, [and] was through the autumn period as well. Hopefully he can continue that vein of form with us, that he’s had for such a long period of time."
Rashford is also enduring a tough campaign and has been dropped from November's squad while there was no recall for Sancho, despite improved form for United.
“Other attacking players in the squad are slightly ahead of him at the moment,” Southgate said of Sancho. “You can see the names – [Phil] Foden, [Raheem] Sterling, [Bukayo] Saka, [Emile] Smith-Rowe, Jack Grealish.
“If you look at the seasons they've had... With Jadon, over the last few weeks his performances have without doubt improved at Manchester United but it's an area of the field where we've got really big competition for places and at the moment we've got those guys slightly ahead.
“Marcus in the same position as everybody else. Whether they're in the squad or not in the squad, they've all got to play well over the end of this season and particularly the beginning of next season. It's a difficult time for him, he's clearly not at his best.
“We know a lot about Marcus anyway and what he can bring to us. And hopefully he rediscovers that form that we know he's capable of."
Manchester City's Kyle Walker was also left out but Southgate said he would return to the squad in June and wanted to use the opportunity to give minutes to Reece James and Trent Alexander-Arnold, instead.
We’ve added Marc Guehi and Ben White and it’s a good opportunity to see two slightly younger players.
England Under-21 captain Guehi was named in the senior squad for the first time, having caught the eye for Palace since joining from Chelsea in the summer.
Southgate's assistant Steve Holland was at Selhurst Park on Monday as he helped the Eagles keep a clean sheet against Man City.
“He's had a really consistent season," Southgate said. “I've been very impressed with him on and off the ball. In the biggest games he's been very calm. We know a lot about him through our development teams as well. He's a junior World Cup winner.
“There are some centre-halves that are pushing and were very close. But we've added Marc and Ben White this time and we think it's a good opportunity to see two slightly younger players and how they cope with being with us."
