Arsenal and England goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale has lauded the under-fire Harry Maguire as one of his nation's best defenders after his unfortunate own goal in Tuesday's friendly win over Scotland.
The Manchester United defender was already the target of perpetual criticism from rival fans and home supporters, many of whom continue to question Gareth Southgate's loyalty to him.
On account of a few high-profile mistakes, Maguire has been demoted to fifth-choice centre-back at Old Trafford and also stripped of the captain's armband, with all of Raphael Varane, Lisandro Martinez, Victor Lindelof and Luke Shaw - a left-back by trade - preferred in the middle.
The 30-year-old had only played 23 minutes of Premier League football this season before the first international break, but he nevertheless held his place in Southgate's Three Lions squad as expected.
Maguire started alongside Marc Guehi for England's Euro 2024 qualifying stalemate with Ukraine at the weekend, where he was blasted for his position in the build-up to Oleksandr Zinchenko's opener, before dropping to the bench against Scotland on Tuesday.
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With England two goals to the good, Southgate brought in Maguire for Guehi at half time, but the £80m centre-back endured another nightmare outing, turning Andy Robertson's cross into his own net to cut the deficit in half.
Nevertheless, Harry Kane rubber-stamped a 3-1 victory towards the end, and there was arguably little that Maguire could have done to prevent the own goal, but he was inevitably slammed on social media.
Southgate immediately jumped to Maguire's defence and hit out at the "ridiculous" treatment of the world's most expensive defender - a sentiment shared by Ramsdale, who started in goal at Hampden Park.
"When you're in a period where you're under the microscope, every little thing is analysed and detailed," the Arsenal number one told Sky Sports News after the game.
"If he was playing week in, week out or this noise wasn't around and he scored an own goal it'd probably get brushed under the carpet. But at the minute, because of the situation people are overhyping 'he shouldn't be playing, he shouldn't be here'.
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"Harry Maguire, as we've seen for England, is one of the best defenders we've got. He's so strong mentally and he's got a great group of people around him and he knows his qualities. He's always a threat in the box for set pieces, he knows he can defend, he knows he's a leader. I love playing with him."
Maguire has now featured in each of England's last 18 matches in all tournaments since being an unused substitute against Switzerland in a March 2022 friendly, and he was hailed as one of the Three Lions' most impressive performers at the 2022 World Cup.
The former Leicester City man has seven goals and two assists to his name from 59 appearances in an England jersey and was also an integral member of the Three Lions' World Cup 2018 and Euro 2020 teams, starting 11 matches across the two tournaments.
With Maguire being chosen to replace Guehi on Tuesday, Fikayo Tomori and Levi Colwill were left on the bench, while Arsenal's Ben White has not been called up since leaving the 2022 World Cup camp for personal reasons.
Should Argentina defender Martinez recover from a recent knock, Maguire is expected to be named on the bench when Man United meet Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League this Saturday.
Ben Knapton
