A look at Harry Maguire's recent struggles after England red card

| 14 October 2020

A look at Harry Maguire's recent struggles after England red card

The Manchester United defender has had a tough few months on and off the pitch.

Harry Maguire was sent off during the first half of England's Nations League defeat to Denmark as his nightmare season continued.

The Manchester United skipper made headlines off the pitch before the new campaign got under way and has followed that up with a number of high-profile poor performances for club and country.

Here, the PA news agency takes a look at Maguire's recent woes.

Arrested in Mykonos

Maguire was dropped from Gareth Southgate's England squad after being charged in a Greek court. — Maguire was dropped from **Gareth Southgate**'s England squad after being charged in a Greek court (Mike Egerton/PA)

On August 21, the day he could have been captaining United in a European final, Maguire instead found his name on the front of the newspapers after he was arrested while on holiday on the Greek island of Mykonos.

He was initially called up for England's Nations League games despite the subsequent court hearing taking place, with Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate backing Maguire when announcing his squad.

Southgate, though, was forced to drop the 27-year-old later the same day after he was found guilty of assaulting a police officer, swearing, resisting arrest and bribery. Maguire strenuously denies the offences, appealing against the verdict and subsequent 21-month suspended prison sentence.

He still went on to start in United's opening-day Premier League defeat at home to Crystal Palace and was called up again by England for the October triple-header.

Spurs Shocker

View this post on Instagram

Today was totally unacceptable, we apologise to the fans, you deserve so much more. There's no excuses. One thing for sure is that we will do everything we can to put this right. We're all hurting but this is the start of a long season with everything to play for. We must stick together. #MUFC 🔴

A post shared by Harry Maguire (@harrymaguire93) on Oct 4, 2020 at 2:00pm PDT

While United were poor in the 3-1 loss to the Eagles, it was nothing compared to the display which saw them thrashed 6-1 at Old Trafford by Tottenham on October 4.

Maguire was not the only guilty party but had a particularly poor afternoon, fudging a clearance for Tottenham's equaliser before being caught out of position more than once as Jose Mourinho's men ran riot.

The former Leicester defender took to Instagram after the embarrassing defeat to apologise to United's fanbase.

"Today was totally unacceptable, we apologise to the fans, you deserve so much more. There's no excuses. One thing for sure is that we will do everything we can to put this right. We're all hurting but this is the start of a long season with everything to play for. We must stick together. #MUFC," he wrote.

Early bath with England

Maguire was dismissed just after the half-hour mark as England went on to lose to Denmark. — Maguire was dismissed just after the half-hour mark as England went on to lose to Denmark (Toby Melville/AP)

Maguire returned to the England team for the 2-1 Nations League victory over Belgium – the number-one ranked team in the world.

He had a largely untroubled afternoon despite coming up against the likes of former United team-mate Romelu Lukaku and Manchester City playmaker Kevin De Bruyne.

His fortunes went the same way as England's, however, when they welcomed Denmark to Wembley three days later.

Having arguably been fortunate to escape a straight red card in just the fifth minute as he was booked for fouling Yussuf Poulsen, he was dismissed just after the half-hour mark for a similarly sloppy challenge on Kasper Dolberg.