Defender explains how Man Utd and Tottenham’s form may have impacted England

Harry Maguire has admitted that the poor form of Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United and Everton in the Premier League could be impacting England’s defence.

The Three Lions crashed to a 2-1 defeat against the Czech Republic on Friday night, despite taking the lead in the match which would have booked their ticket to Euro 2020 if they had managed to win the encounter.

England’s back five (including goalkeeper) consisted of Tottenham’s Danny Rose, Michael Keane and Jordan Pickford of Everton, United’s Maguire and recent Atletico Madrid recruit Kieran Trippier.

Spurs left-back Danny Rose was singled out for criticism by Roy Keane who labelled the 29-year-old’s display as ‘shocking and abysmal’ (ITV).

Tottenham find themselves in ninth place in the top flight table with United in twelfth while Everton are two places off the bottom.

Maguire admits that the defensive struggles which he and his team-mates are encountering at club level may be filtering through to the Three Lions.

Maguire told The Mirror: “Maybe it is a confidence thing because we bring our club football to the international level.

“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.”