Harry Maguire is getting plenty of practice at delivering public rebuttals of his own status, either with England or Manchester United. He came out swinging after the Carabao Cup final and gave another forceful post-match interview in Naples on Thursday night.
It feels like a change of approach from the 30-year-old, who has had a difficult time at club level but remains a key player for Gareth Southgate's England, despite the criticism. He has become a pantomime villain in this country but recently he's become more vocal in defending his own record.
You can understand why. For all that Maguire has lost his way at United and might not be good enough to be regularly starting under Erik ten Hag, he remains a good defender and a good leader.
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Those were traits Ten Hag touched on just over a week ago when Maguire started back-to-back games for United for the first time since August
Discussing his club captain, Ten Hag pointed out that he had become more "dominant and dictating" and started to take more of the "initiative". He clearly wanted more from his skipper.
Those personality traits might partly explain why Maguire is becoming more public in protecting his own reputation and reminding people of his record. When a group of Manchester-based reporters asked to speak to him in the Wembley mixed zone after the Carabao Cup final there was some surprise when he agreed.
He had come on for the final minute of the 2-0 win against Newcastle but he answered every question thoughtfully and spoke well about his own role and what it meant. He twice mentioned that he was club captain, pointed to the importance of finally winning a trophy with United and spoke confidently about his relationship with Ten Hag, while admitting he wanted to play more often.
Maguire talks more often on England duty and he stopped after England's win in Italy to speak to reporters, again delivering a punchy response, insisting he has nothing to prove. At 29, he has 53 international caps and 168 appearances for Manchester United, but is still criticised regularly. For a significant section of United's online fanbase, he will never be accepted.
But he insisted he sees himself as a leader for United as well as England, saying: "I feel my form's been good this year. I know people look at me not playing but when I’ve played, in my last eight or nine starts for Manchester United we’ve won. So my influence is still there."
It's no surprise Maguire knew those stats. His camp have been keen to point out that United's record when he starts is good. It's nine successive wins now and five clean sheets in those games, but the caveat is that Fulham are the best team he has faced in that run. It suggests he isn't trusted to start the big games.
"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’re the captain of Manchester United you do come under the most amount of scrutiny. Last season at club level, my performance wasn’t good enough, alongside everybody else at club level, not just myself struggled. Everyone else struggled," Maguire said this week.
That is a fair assessment and Maguire is partly hamstrung by his price tag of £80million and his early promotion to the role of club captain. If he was a foot soldier at United, without the fee and the responsibility hanging over his head, things might be different. But they're not.
He has started just 12 games this season and will surely want to look for more regular football in the summer. United might also feel they need to bank what they can for a defender who still has plenty of admirers in the Premier League, although mostly in mid-table.
Publicly and privately, Maguire is starting to show the traits that Ten Hag wanted to see. But it might not be enough to save his United career.
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