Ramsdale: Criticism has not affected 'outstanding' Maguire

Aaron Ramsdale praised Harry Maguire for his continued "outstanding" England displays as the under-fire defender blocks out unrelenting criticism and scrutiny.

Gareth Southgate has stuck by the centre-back and brought him on at half-time in Tuesday's 3-1 friendly win over Scotland, during which he was mocked mercilessly by the Hampden Park crowd before scoring an own goal.

England fans backed Maguire and chanted his name in Glasgow, with team-mates like goalkeeper Ramsdale also offering support to the often-criticised centre-back.

The Arsenal stopper said: "Harry Maguire has had criticism for the past 18 months, two years. It hasn't affected him.

"His performances for England have been nigh on outstanding, that's why he keeps getting picked and played. Simple as that.

"I don't think a few whistles and groans from the fans are going to change his mindset.

"He had 45 minutes in a game where I thought he played well, kept the ball for us and one unfortunate own goal, if you want to call it that, and people are going to start talking about him and I don't think it's needed."

Ramsdale believes Maguire was "superb when he came on" and had no issues with his "really unfortunate" own goal. 

He added: "People will say he's come on and scored an own goal, but if he has any doubt in his mind, I want my defender to try to clear it.

"It's a cross-shot, he's tried to deal with it and eight times out of 10 it goes behind for a corner or he clears it. 

"Every time he touched the ball the crowd got up and made noises and he dealt with it extremely well, played some lovely passes. 

"I thought he accompanied Lewis [Dunk] and rest of the back four really well. Yeah, I'd want him to do that again 10 times over."