Marc Guehi has hailed the impact made by England defensive colleague Harry Maguire both on and off the pitch.
Maguire has fallen out of favour at Manchester United and was goaded by Scotland fans after coming off the bench and scoring an own goal in England’s 3-1 win at Hampden Park last month.
Despite losing both the United captaincy and his place in Erik ten Hag’s side, the 30-year-old centre-back has retained the faith of international boss Gareth Southgate.
Maguire revealed ahead of the upcoming friendly clash with Australia that former England captain David Beckham had been in touch after the mockery north of the border.
Team-mates have also rallied around the former Leicester defender and Guehi – who Maguire replaced at half-time in Glasgow – was the latest to praise his contribution.
“He is a top professional, a great guy to have around the camp, one of the leaders,” he told BBC Radio 5Live.
“I think people forget things very quickly, but he was Manchester United captain, someone who has played for England at many, many top competitions and has helped the team and the nation to get where they are today.
“So, let’s not forget what he has done in a hurry because he is definitely a top player and an even better person for sure.”
Guehi has partnered Maguire at the heart of Southgate’s defence in two of the last three Euro 2024 qualifiers.
The 23-year-old Crystal Palace defender has worn the armband for England at youth level, but is still aiming to improve as a leader.
Casually playing out from the back.
Ft. Marc Guéhi 😍 pic.twitter.com/eNWkKMuOOG
— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) October 10, 2023
“I am very wary of my limitations of a leader I would say,” he said.
“I think I have a lot of qualities, but there is definitely a lot of things that I can get better at and definitely will get better at.
“Every day is a learning process, learning from the players around me, learning from coaches and try and improve those leadership qualities every day.
“You can’t always be perfect. I am definitely aware of that myself. I see them in myself every day, but they are definitely things I want to work at. I know I am getting better at them as long as I keep working on them each day.”
Asked what he felt he needed to work on, Guehi added: “Sometimes I can be frustrated, which is human nature and trying to work on that and trying not to show as much as possible, because I think when you are a leader people feed off that.
“If they see you are frustrated that can allow them to be frustrated. So, trying to stay as calm as possible in the toughest of situations, I would say that is definitely one of those.”
