Former Manchester United captain Harry Maguire insists the percentages are on his side despite his troubled time at Old Trafford since Erik ten Hag’s appointment last summer.
The Dutch manager has nailed the 30-year-old to the bench after snapping up the signatures of Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane, with Victor Lindelof also leapfrogging him in the pecking order.
However, the defender’s underwhelming club fortunes haven’t influenced his national team status as England boss Gareth Southgate continues to trust him ‘for no good reason.’
But there may be a reason.
While Maguire’s sloppy pieces of defending and epic mistakes turned the Englishman into a scapegoat at Old Trafford, the stats play into his hands, as he pointed out himself in a recent interview.
“It’s not my decision to whether I start the next game or not,” Maguire said, as relayed by Squawka. “I’m unsure about that. I’m sure in a couple of weeks I’ll go back and find out.
“If you look back on my last 15-20 starts for club and country, I would be happy to sit here and say I’m really happy with my performances.
“My record under this manager speaks for itself. I haven’t started as many games as I like, but my win percentage when I’ve played is ridiculously high.”
Does Maguire have a point?
Stastic-wise, his statement is on the money.
Across his 18 Man Utd starts under Ten Hag, he has racked up 14 wins and four defeats, accounting for an impressive 77.8 win ratio.
The Red Devils registered eight clean sheets in those matches and conceded an average of 0.94 goals per game, which also backs Maguire’s claim.
However, the under-fire centre-back failed to bring the quality of the sides he faced in that sequence into the equation before delivering the final verdict.
Perennial bottom-half strugglers Everton, last season’s relegation side Leeds United, lower-league Charlton Athletic and one of the Premier League’s worst attacks, Crystal Palace, are among the teams to have drawn a blank against Maguire.
He failed to mention second-tier Reading, low-scoring Real Sociedad and underperforming La Liga side Sevilla penetrated Man Utd’s backline with him in the starting XI.
Maguire most recently failed to shut out Brentford, but Scott McTominay’s stoppage-time heroics inspired United to a 2-1 home win, strengthening the defender’s recent numbers in the red jersey.
United’s comeback at Old Trafford marked their first triumph in three Premier League fixtures with the English defender on the pitch this season, with the previous two yielding defeats.
In his defence, he came on as a late substitute in those losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Maguire’s record when donning the England shirt is equally telling, with the Three Lions boasting a resounding 85% unbeaten record in his last 20 international starts (W11, D6, L3).
But while England thumped Scotland 3-1 in the Man Utd underachiever’s last international appearance, his scrappy own goal after coming from the bench denied them a fourth clean sheet in six outings in 2023.
The percentages speak volumes if you look at his last 20 appearances for club and country, given he was on the winning side on 17 occasions, drawing once and losing twice.
When you look at the stats, Maguire has a point. But his influence on those numbers remains open to interpretation.
