Harry Maguire Reveals England Players Are Confused By Nations League

The first international break of the season really kicks off on Thursday evening when the first ever UEFA Nations League starts up. World Cup star Harry Maguire has admitted that the England players are confused by the competition.

As the weather starts to get incrementally worse, the days get shorter and the schools go back it's getting harder and harder to remember those long evenings of sun, beer and England winning penalty shoot outs, well one.

The World Cup feels like another lifetime ago and now that the Premier League has started international football will once again start feeling like a chore and a boring week rather than the excitement we felt from Russia.

UEFA have tried to get rid of some of that boredom by making the international window count for something. Gone are the endless friendlies and in their place, for the main part, comes the new Nations League competition.

England face Spain in their opening fixture in the tournament on Saturday and in October they get the chance to get revenge on Croatia for their semi-final defeat in Russia.

One of the men who starred for England in the World Cup, Harry Maguire, has admitted that the players have found the new competition confusing, saying:

"It is quite confusing - I don't know what you guys think of it?

"The boss tried to explain it to us the best he could the other day. I think he has got his head around it now, but it took a lot of studying.

"It is confusing, but we are trying to get our heads round it. For us players, we just go into each game trying to win it and see where it takes us. So we will see after the game."

Maguire trying to work out the new competition. Image: PA Images

The Nations League is a little confusing but it doesn't need to be for England. They are in the top tier of the competition so in a group of three they will advance to the semi finals by finishing first and get relegated by finishing third, a second place finish will mean nothing.

UEFA's competition gets more confusing for teams who don't qualify for the Euros in 2020 because there is a route to the competition for those whose traditional qualifying campaign goes array.

Maguire celebrating his goal in the World Cup quarter final. Image: PA Images

For the players it should be pretty simple really, go out and continue playing they did in the World Cup. Maybe that way we can continue to hold onto the dying embers of the summer.

Topics: Harry Maguire, Football News, Nations League, Croatia, England, Gareth Southgate, World Cup, Spain

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a writer for SPORTbible. He covers all sport from football, formula one, cricket, rugby, tennis, athletics, mma and wrestling. He obviously hates YOUR football team and has no interest in synchronised swimming.

@Sidler28