Harry Maguire insists there are "definitely no cliques" in the England squad despite the altercation between Raheem Sterling and Joe Gomez this week. Sterling has been dropped for Thursday's Euro 2020 qualifier against Montenegro at Wembley after confronting England teammate Gomez on Monday.
The two players had clashed the previous day, as Sterling's Manchester City was beaten 3-1 by Gomez and Liverpool, the Premier League leader and the winger's former club. Yet Manchester United defender Maguire is confident issues between players from rival clubs will not continue to dog England as they reportedly have in the past.
Asked at a pre-match news conference if there were any club cliques in the squad, Maguire replied: "No, everybody mixes."
"I think you've seen how good the unity in the squad is over the last couple of years. It's been a good two years and the group has grown together. We continue to keep on growing and that's really important. No, definitely no cliques. We all share tables and share jokes and laughs together."
England needs just a point against Montenegro to qualify for the finals, where it would play a number of matches at its own Wembley home. Maguire is hopeful, should the Three Lions' secure its progress, the home crowd can be a big factor next year.
"It would be really special to play in a major tournament and walking out at Wembley would be something that you dream of," he said.
"People say it would give us a little advantage as well. We know that the crowd get right behind us at Wembley and the support over the last few years – especially since I've been playing – has been unbelievable. It's a big game [against Montenegro] and one that we're all looking forward to and we feel prepared for."
England's hopes at the Euros would also depend on improved defensive showings, though, with a number of individual mistakes hampering its qualification campaign so far.
Maguire added: "Obviously, we're coming off the back of a clean sheet [in a 6-0 win in Bulgaria], but we've conceded a few sloppy goals recently. I'm not proud of it and we're working hard on the training pitch to make that better."
"We know the firepower we have in our squad. We've got to a stage now where we're scoring near enough in every game, and we're creating problems for other people's defences. So my job and I'm sure all the rest of the defenders and the keepers as a group, we'll try to shut the shop up and start keeping clean sheets a lot more regularly."
Comments
SHARE