With an international break going on, we sat down to have a talk with the former Manchester United and England star, Paul Parker, just prior to England’s important game against Italy.
Parker shared his opinions on Harry Maguire and whether he deserves to be on the national team as he hasn’t played that much for Man United.
The former Man United player also shared his thoughts on Marcus Rashford and told what the ideal front three would be for England.
Gareth Southgate disrespected Erik ten Hag by picking Harry Maguire
Harry Maguire was picked by Gareth Southgate to the England squad despite his lack of games for Man United, which according to Parker is disrespectful to Erik ten Hag.
“I think that Gareth Southgate has disrespected Erik ten Hag by picking Harry Maguire to the national team. It is very disrespectful and a completely wrong decision.”
“Erik ten Hag has made it clear that he is not good enough for Man United, so how can he be good enough to play for the national team? It makes no sense.”
“He hasn’t played regularly for a long time now and he is struggling defensively every time he gets the opportunity to play.”
“Martinez was clearly telling him in the previous game that he was defending too deep and I don’t get how he can´t understand how Erik ten Hag wants to play.”
“But no, he shouldn’t have been picked for the national team. Yeah, he has done okay for England but at some point it will go wrong. You need games behind you and you need to know that it’s justified that you are on the national team.”
“This would be the ideal front three for England”
Unfortunately, Rashford has withdrawn from the national team with an injury but Parker claims that the injury probably isn’t that serious as he also shares his thoughts on his ideal front three for England.
“I would start with Marcus Rashford over Jack Grealish every day. Grealish can win the team a lot of freekicks but he can’t win his team games. Rashford is a threat and Grealish isn´t.”
“Unfortunately he was forced to withdraw with an injury.. But I think it’s an Erling Haaland injury he got. He is probably more focused on playing for his club at this moment in time so he decided to go back there.”
“And I understand him. He knows that he is going to sit on the bench for England so why bother being there?”
“If I had to choose my attacking line for England it would be Rashford, Foden and Saka. Harry Kane shouldn’t play as a centre forward because he doesn’t want to be a centre forward.”
“Foden can easily play in the middle and in that way we could have three players up front who want to score goals.”