Harry Maguire has suggested that England’s ‘sloppy’ performance against the Czech Republic was ‘a confidence thing,’ with three of the Three Lions’ back four playing their club football for out-of-form sides.
England went into Friday nights Euro 2020 qualifier knowing a win would see them confirm their place at next summer’s finals, and despite having not lost a qualification game for 10 years, they put in a lacklustre performance in Prague.
The Three Lions back four consisted of Atletico Madrid’s Kieran Trippier, Everton’s Michael Keane, Manchester United’s Harry Maguire and Tottenham Hotspur’s Danny Rose, with the three Premier League sides having endured a difficult start to the season.
Spurs are currently ninth in the league, recently suffering defeats at the hands of Colchester, Bayern Munich and Brighton, while Man United are languishing in 12th, just two points ahead of Everton, who sit in the relegation zone.
Speaking about England’s performance in central Europe, £80 million centre-back Maguire suggested that the players’ club form affected their international display, adding that the Three Lions didn’t even deserve to take the lead through Harry Kane’s fifth minute penalty.
“Maybe it is a confidence thing because we bring our club football to the international level,” Maguire said.
“It was a difficult game. We started sloppy and we took the lead in the game when we probably didn’t deserve to.
“In the second half, we controlled the game a lot more but we gave them a sloppy goal to win the game.
“So we do need to improve on that. It’s hard to lose any football game, but we were not at our best and got punished.”
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