Gareth Southgate is ready to stake his reputation on the continued selection of Harry Maguire, insisting the out-of-favour Manchester United defender remains one of England's most important players.
Maguire has been dropped to the bench for United's run of four consecutive Premier League victories, having started their back-to-back defeats to open the campaign last month.
The defender has only started one of United's past five games in all competitions – a 1-0 Europa League loss to Real Sociedad – leading to criticism of Southgate's decision to call him up for England's remaining Nations League fixtures.
But speaking ahead of England's meeting with Italy at San Siro, which is followed by the visit of Germany on Monday, Southgate insisted Maguire remains central to his plans.
"Whatever reputation I have I'm putting it on there," Southgate said. "I think you always have to back your judgement, and we feel he is an important player.
"Clearly, it's not an ideal situation. You want your best players playing regularly so that they're physically in a good place and mentally in a good place.
"But he is an important player for us. I think it's important to back our best players.
"I haven't felt the need to speak to him any differently to the rest of the players. Look, he understands that he's at a big club, big transfer fee and captain of the club so I think that's why the spotlight has been on him more.
"But he's focused on training well every day and getting himself back in the [United] team."
While Southgate acknowledges a lack of alternatives contributed to his decision to stand by Maguire, he also highlighted the ball-playing ability of the defender and his partner John Stones.
"If we thought there were experienced players ready to step in and play at a level above, there would be a different consideration and in some positions there would be a different level of competition in that way," Southgate said. "He is our most dominant aerial centre-back.
"Him and John are incredible with the ball really – the amount of pressure they have taken for the team in tournaments we have played because we don't always have that midfield pivot player who can progress the game.
"It means there is a huge amount of pressure on our centre-backs to use the ball well and those two are as good as any in world football at doing that."
England have only lost two of their past 26 matches, both against Hungary in June's Nations League fixtures (W18 D6).
However, the Three Lions are also winless in their past four games (D2 L2), their longest such run since June 2014 (five), and a defeat to Italy in Milan would condemn Southgate's side to relegation from the Nations League's top tier.
Increased capacity of 57,000 expected at Anfield for Liverpool v Man Utd clash
Liverpool expect to have 57,000 fans in attendance for the visit of Manchester United providing the new Anfield Road Stand receives a safety certificate this week.
A test event on Monday evening is set to be attended by 7,500-plus supporters, who will watch a LFC Foundation mini-game and listen to a question-and-answer session from manager Jurgen Klopp.
If everything runs smoothly then on Sunday 7,000 seats in the upper tier will be filled for the visit of their arch-rivals, leaving only facilities for 2,000 hospitality guests and some minor work on the lower tier to be completed next month to bring the capacity up to 61,000.
Work on the £80million upgrade was due to be completed for the start of the season but an initial delay was complicated by contractors Buckingham Group going into administration, leading to a phased reopening which has seen only the lower tier in operation.
“It’s been really challenging,” said Paul Cuttill, vice-president of Stadium Operations.
“Our priority was to get fans back into the stadium as soon as possible safely. Billy (Hogan, the chief executive) said back in October it would likely be 2024 before we would open so to get ahead of that for the Man United game is a bit of an early Christmas present.
“What it has cost us is the amount of time it has taken.
“Being able to bring in people earlier has been a massive benefit to us, but we won’t know the true nature of the costs until we have got a proper programme in place towards the end of the season.”
Chiellini sees bright future for Italy and says Euro 2024 predictions 'too pessimistic'
Italy great Giorgio Chiellini believes the Azzurri have a bright future ahead of them and says critics have been overly pessimistic regarding their chances at Euro 2024.
Chiellini captained Italy as they overcame England in the final of Euro 2020, but the Azzurri have not been widely tipped to retain their crown after enduring a difficult few years.
Having missed out on the last two World Cups, Italy somewhat scraped their way through qualifying for next year's tournament in Germany, losing home and away to England and requiring a nervy 0-0 draw with Ukraine on the final matchday to avoid the playoffs.
Ahead of Luciano Spalletti's first major tournament in charge, Italy have been drawn to face Spain, Croatia and Albania in a difficult-looking group, but Chiellini believes reports of the Azzurri's demise have been greatly exaggerated.
"I know the Italian draw very well. Croatia and Spain are good teams with experience, with good players," the defender told Stats Perform.
"Albania is our biggest friend that we face. We are very happy that they joined the Euros. I have a lot of Albanian friends and they deserve it. We have to respect that.
"Obviously, we will try to pass through the group, arrive in the quarter-finals and then we'll see. We have seen also in the last [Euros], we were lucky.
"I guess also in the round of 16 [against Austria], and we were lucky to win on penalties in the last two games, but at the end we deserved to win.
"There is a good cycle, a new cycle, with good young players. I think that could be a good spine for the national team.
"I don't know if they need maybe more time to be in the right moment and in their prime to win, but there is a bright future for the Italian national team."
Asked who excited him most in the current Italy setup, Chiellini said: "I think [Gianluigi] Donnarumma is by far the best young goalkeeper that we could have and he's really special.
"[Alessandro] Bastoni is a fantastic defender and we have a lot of amazing midfielders. [Marco] Verratti is just 31, he's not 40 like me! We have a good midfield.
"[Federico] Chiesa is someone that could break every line in every moment of the game. Italy have a good team.
"Now I hope that there are new faces arriving because we have a good academy for the national team, with players coming through.
"We have a good coach, everything is good. Sometimes in Italy, we are too pessimistic with the team and we talk badly, but I think that we have a bright future and a really good team."
Chiellini keen to continue football career in the boardroom, not the dugout
Giorgio Chiellini is keen to stay in football when he calls time on his glittering career, though he imagines himself becoming a director rather than a coach.
Chiellini won nine Serie A titles during a distinguished spell with Juventus and captained Italy to Euro 2020 glory before moving to the United States last year, helping Los Angeles FC win the MLS Cup.
LAFC failed to go back-to-back as they were beaten 2-1 by the Columbus Crew in Saturday's MLS Cup final, and Chiellini has yet to make a decision on whether he will play on in 2024, with his contract due to expire this month.
As for his long-term future, the 39-year-old has his eyes set on a place in the boardroom, rather than the dugout.
Speaking exclusively to Stats Perform, Chiellini said: "I did a degree in economics and the NBA, and I had always that type of management in my mind.
"Not as a coach, not in scouting, but yeah, to try to remain linked in the world of football on that side.
"It's not easy. It's not a journey that you start and then you can decide, you have to study and learn many things because at the end, you come into this world at 40 and not at 25.
"Then you have some other skills that probably other football players don't have, but you miss other parts.
"What I hope for my future is to have the time to learn and the patience to stay close to some key figures and key people that are open to teaching me what I'm missing, and to develop this type of situation. I cannot just focus on watching games."
Expanding further on what his ideal role would entail, the defender added: "More of a director, not just scouting, but something more management based.
"Related to football, but not as one of the people who watch the players in order to pick them.
"Something where I maybe help the club to figure out about what we could spend for players, how we could afford them, how we could improve the situation, all this stuff."
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