09 September 2023 , 18:14
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Neil Lennon believes Harry Maguire could be viewed as Gareth Southgate's "pet" if the England manager keeps selecting the Manchester United star.
Maguire, 30, had another tough day at the office in England's 1-1 draw against Ukraine in the Polish city of Wroclaw on Saturday evening. Oleksandr Zinchenko opened the scoring for Ukraine before Kyle Walker scored his first senior goal for the Three Lions.
Maguire failed to cover himself in glory for Zinchenko's goal. As the cross came into the middle, he ran into his defensive partner Marc Guehi. That allowed Zinchenko to benefit from the space in the middle and stroke the ball beyond Jordan Pickford.
Maguire's continued selection has left many England fans angry due to his lack of minutes at Old Trafford. The centre-back has failed to start a Premier League game this season and was stripped of the United captaincy by Erik ten Hag during the summer.
Yet Southgate is continuing to pick Maguire over other defenders. Levi Colwill, Fikayo Tomori and Lewis Dunk were all left on the bench to make room for Maguire, while Arsenal star Ben White didn't even make the squad.
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Lennon believes the situation will only get worse if Southgate continues to pick Maguire when he's not playing regularly at club level. "Tomori, played in the semi-final of the Champions League - plays for AC Milan at the top of Serie A," Lennon told Sky Sports. "Play him! Harry's depreciating all the time - every week and every month, the less he plays.
"You need those minutes on the pitch. The other thing is, he's under much more scrutiny than anyone else because they'll be this sort of perspective that he's a pet - he's Southgate's favourite. And there is an argument to that.
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"But I've watched Harry over the last 18 months and he's not getting enough game time. It's not enough (to be selected by England). I don't know how Gareth can still justify picking him in the squad, first of all, and picking him over other players.
"For Harry's own sake and career, he needs to get out (of United) and play regular first-team football at the highest level he can because it doesn't look like he's going to get much game time at Man Utd."
Lennon added: "He's under scrutiny all the time... if he goes in and makes a mistake, he's going to be under the spotlight again and have all this criticism. I just think, if he'd been out for maybe six weeks, I could understand it.
"But this has been over the course of maybe 10, 12, 18 months now - not playing regular for Man Utd when these guys are all playing regular for Premier League teams or Serie A teams."