Erik ten hag insists he believes in Manchester United captain Harry Maguire and is convinced the centre-back will recover from his prolonged malaise.
Maguire has been out of form for over a year, lost his place in the United side to Raphael Varane in August and has only started one of the last six games.
The 29-year-old endured a chastening evening for England in their 3-3 draw with Germany at Wembley on Monday night when he conceded a penalty and was dispossessed for the counter-attack that led to Kai Havertz's goal.
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Maguire played the remainder of the game injured and has been ruled out of Sunday's Manchester derby but his struggles still dominated Ten Hag's press conference.
"First of all, of course, I have to coach him, I have to back him but I back him because I believe in him," Ten Hag said. "In the period I worked with him, pre-season was good, it was really good, training and games, so then he fell out but it's also to do with the good performances of the centre-backs who playing now.
"But I can see the qualities and even after he wasn't in the team he trained really well and more importantly, the quality was really there. You see his career, almost 50 caps for England, for Leicester and Man United he's performing really well, what you see is high potential.
"And then it's about him, the players in the dressing room, the coaches, the manager believe in him. That's what I told him, I'm sure he can do it and he will turn it around, I'm convinced of that."
A report published in August listed Maguire as the most abused Premier League footballer on Twitter and a large section of the online United fanbase have railed against his prominence as a starter and United captain.
Maguire was the top trend during and after England's draw with Germany and brusquely claimed last week he is written about so extensively "for clicks".
"It's an aspect of football and of our work," Ten Hag said of social media abuse. "We set conditions for that, we also have experts around to help, to coach the players, the team in the right direction.
"I think he is doing quite well but every player has room for improvement and if he believes in his skills he will quickly be back on the level that he did and I am convinced of that."
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