Maguire 'always in contention' despite Tuchel's 3-4-3 reservations

Harry Maguire will "always be in contention" for Thomas Tuchel's England squads, but the Three Lions boss admits Manchester United's use of a back three complicates matters.

Maguire was left out of Tuchel's first party as England opened their 2026 World Cup qualification campaign with victories over Albania (2-0) and Latvia (3-0).

Ezri Konsa started both of those matches at centre-back, being partnered by debutant Dan Burn against Albania and Crystal Palace man Marc Guehi versus Latvia.

Maguire has 64 senior caps for his country and was a key player under Gareth Southgate, with only Harry Kane, Kyle Walker, Jordan Pickford and John Stones being used more often by Tuchel's predecessor.

However, Maguire missed Euro 2024 due to injury and was also omitted from two of the three squads selected by Lee Carsley during his interim period in charge last year.

Maguire has not played for United since March 2 due to a calf injury, though Tuchel says fitness was not the only factor when it came to picking his centre-backs. 

"I spoke to all of them who were not on the list to give my direct feedback on my decision," Tuchel said. "It was a close decision. 

"We chose Marc Guehi and Ezri Konsa at the moment. I think they are a little bit in a better rhythm and deserve to be with us.

"We started two right-footers in central defence and the rest were left-footers in the centre of defence.

"Also he was not fit when we did the nomination. It was presumed that he could play, but we didn't want to nominate a player where we had to take a risk, where in the first training or second training we'd need to assess whether he could do a full training session."

Maguire has struggled for form at club level for some time, with United currently 13th in the Premier League and on course for their worst finish in the competition's history.

Since Ruben Amorim joined the Red Devils last November, Maguire has played 100% of his league minutes as the middle centre-back in a three-man backline.

And with Tuchel moving away from Southgate's 3-4-3 system to implement a 4-2-3-1 shape, the German admits that is another consideration.

"Harry knows it's not so easy for him at the club at the moment," Tuchel said.

"He plays in a back three on top of it, but he's a top professional and he's very important for England. 

"He took it unbelievably well. He wrote me messages to wish us good luck, and you see what a person he is. He is a top guy and he will always be in contention."

England play their next World Cup qualifier in Andorra on 7 June, before hosting Senegal in a friendly at Nottingham Forest's City Ground three days later.