Jordan Henderson was left less than impressed by Harry Maguire after the captain stopped a rondo during England’s training session.
Gareth Southgate’s side secured victory in their first game of 2022 as they came from behind to beat Switzerland 2-1 at Wembley on Saturday evening.
Maguire did not feature in that game but is expected to play some part in England’s friendly against Ivory Coast at Wembley on Tuesday.
But ahead of England’s preparations, Henderson was clearly not pleased with Maguire’s decision to halt a promising rondo with and goalkeeper Nick Pope struggling to win the ball back.
Henderson was keeping count as England’s players got to 42 consecutive passes, but when the ball came to Maguire, the Manchester United skipper bizarrely kept the ball at his feet and stopped the drill.
The Liverpool captain glared at Maguire before asking, ‘what are you doing?’.
Speaking last week, Gareth Southgate defended his decision to include Maguire in his squad for England despite his poor performances for Manchester United this season.
‘There’s always going to be a point at which people have got to play at a good level,’ Southgate said.
‘But I don’t see… he’s been first choice for us for the last three years, I don’t see any logic in us leaving him out of a squad at this moment in time.
‘I’m not sure who else would be coming in to play at a higher level who we could really hang our hat on at a World Cup situation in eight games’ time.
‘It’s not been ideal for Harry, but I’ve got great faith that we can get him into a structure and way of playing that we’ve always managed to accentuate his considerable strengths and protect, like all players, all players have areas where they need protecting and that’s what you try to do as a coach and a manager, trying to set your team up in that way.’
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