‘It’s ridiculous’ - Aston Villa’s Tyrone Mings defends Harry Maguire after criticism of Man United captain

Aston Villa captain Tyrone Mings has defended his England team-mate Harry Maguire after the Manchester United defender was criticised by fans on social media.

Maguire went viral in a clip on Twitter this week when he seemingly didn’t understand the rules to a game of the rondo training drill.

England players managed to put 40 passes together while Nick Pope and Jack Grealish tried to intercept the ball.

Manchester United captain Maguire then took two touches when you should only take one - allowing Pope to get the ball.

The group, including Harry Kane and Jordan Henderson seemed confused after Maguire gave the ball to Pope.

Henderson looked at Maguire and appeared to ask him: “What are you doing?”

‘For social media these days the truth is sometimes far less exciting’

Maguire was criticised by fans as the clip went viral, but Villa captain Mings has defended Maguire, calling the criticised ‘ridiculous’.

Speaking to talkSPORT, he said: “I think it’s ridiculous really.

“We got to about 45 passes and he stopped the ball and I can only presume, there’s no other reason to stop the ball at that point, it was to give the people in the middle a breather.

“Once you get to 20 passes you are in for another one, so the two that were in there anyway were going to be in for another two when it got to 42, 43.

“He’s actually giving them a bit of a breather to say ‘that’s enough, let’s start again’.

“So to take a negative spin on that just shows people don’t always know what is going on and don’t quite understand the full context of the video.

“But for social media these days the truth is sometimes far less exciting than making something up or sending something viral.”

Maguire was also surprisingly jeered by some England fans during England’s 3-0 win over Ivory Coast last night (29 March).

England manager Gareth Southgate said the reception Maguire received was an “absolute joke”.

Speaking before last night’s match, Mings, who scored in the win, said the criticism of the United skipper has been ‘extremely over the top’.

He told talkSPORT: “Listen, I know Harry as a player and I know him as a person, and I can’t speak highly enough of him.

“I can’t speak highly enough if the responsibility he takes on his shoulders every single day to be Man United captain.

“He would have been chosen as captain for a reason and the reason would be for all the qualities you see come out of him day-in day-out, not forgetting he’s a fantastic footballer as well and one who has been a superb servant in the England shirt.

“I find the criticism of him extremely over the top.

“But then I understand that journalists and writers who sometimes write stuff like that and jump on the bandwagon is what sells papers or what gets clicks.

“So you guys – and I don’t mean to categorise everybody – but the people who write this stuff for sure have a job and feel like they’re doing to right thing because it’s topical and it’s cool to jump on the bandwagon, and it’s what you might thing people want to hear.

“But really I find it all to be misplaced.”

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