Manchester United captain Harry Maguire believes that his form for both club and country has been positive this season, admitting that he wants to wrestle his place back at Old Trafford.
The centre-back is currently away on international duty with England and started Thursday night's impressive 2-1 win over Italy in Naples in the Three Lions' opening European Championship qualifier. Reunited with long-term centre-back partner John Stones, Maguire produced another solid performance for his country, helping them register a first win in Italy since 1961.
Maguire has been a regular under England boss Gareth Southgate in recent years, playing a key role in each of the last three major tournaments. Despite struggling to earn regular minutes at Old Trafford in the first portion of this season, he retained his place in Southgate's starting line-up for the World Cup in Qatar and was one of England's best performers.
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Although he has continued to impress on the international stage, opportunities have been hard to come by for the Sheffield-born defender at United this term, purely because of the form of Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez. Nevertheless, Maguire believes he has delivered the goods when opportunities have presented themselves.
"Obviously this season I haven't played as much as I'd like but, for my club, I feel like my form's been good this year," Maguire told PA Sport. "I know people obviously look at me not playing but when I've played, I think in my last eight or nine starts for Manchester United we have won.
"I can't remember losing a game for Manchester United, it must be the third week of the season. So my influence is still there.
"But of course I love playing for my country and in 50-odd caps I feel like I've never let my country down. I think in terms of minutes on the clock I played two games last week, two 90 minutes for Manchester United.
"I think last month I played four games, started four, so it's probably as many as a lot of the lads in the dressing room if not more. Listen, I want to play every game, I want to play every game for my club and my country.
"I feel like I'm good enough to play at a high level and I've proven that over the last five, six years now."
Maguire is likely to continue to play a key role for England under Southgate, with the Three Lions chief having plenty of trust in the defender. And with that in mind, the United skipper does not believe he needs to prove himself to anyone.
Asked if he feels appreciated, the centre-back added: "For England, yes, I do. Obviously last season was difficult for the club but listen, I've proven myself to Gareth, who works with a wide range of centre-backs.
"He has the choice of all the English centre-backs in the country and every time I'm available I've been in the team. I'm sure if you ask the rest of the lads they know what I bring to the team.
"I feel like I'm nearly 30 years old but I shouldn't really need to prove myself at this level. I've made over 50 caps, I'm England's top-scoring defender.
"I've played nearly 200 times for Manchester United, I've captained the club for three years now but I do also understand that when you are the captain of Manchester United you do come under the most amount of scrutiny.
"Last season at club level, my performance was weren't good enough, alongside everybody else at club level, not just myself."
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