Frustration over Kobbie Mainoo's unclear role in England's World Cup squad | OneFootball

Manchester United midfielder Kobbie Mainoo endured a frustrating World Cup 2026 and seemed unhappy with his role in the England squad.

The 21-year-old is still relatively inexperienced and can surely still have a bright future with the national team, but he’d also gone into this tournament after some fine form for Man Utd in the Premier League last season.

So for England manager Thomas Tuchel to then not give him a single minute at the World Cup is a bit confusing, and it seems it didn’t go down well.

According to the Athletic, Mainoo’s body language didn’t look too great as he was often the first to leave the stadium and get onto the team bus after matches.

Kobbie Mainoo’s England struggles

The Athletic claim that Tuchel’s use of Mainoo ‘has been a particularly big talking point’, as per sources close to the squad.

There seems to have been a sense of confusion about whether Mainoo was just there to make up the numbers, or if Tuchel felt he’d have been happy just to be along for the journey at such a young age.

This clearly wasn’t the case, however, with the report describing the Red Devils ace as looking ‘forlorn’ at times, in what was generally described as an ‘unhappy’ situation in the England camp.

Did Mainoo deserve more minutes?

Mainoo has a slightly different profile to Declan Rice and Elliot Anderson, so there could surely have been some use for him at times in this tournament.

Then again, there are more proven players in this squad, and perhaps Mainoo was never realistically likely to be more of a backup.

United fans will know what he’s capable of, though, and if he’s been able to impress on a consistent basis at a club with huge standards and expectations, then he shouldn’t find it too hard to also make an impact at international level.

Indeed, Mainoo already has 14 caps to his name and looked impressive with the Three Lions at Euro 2024, so to treat him like an untested youngster doesn’t really seem justified.

It’s interesting to note that Mainoo also found himself frozen out of the United team for a while under previous manager Ruben Amorim, so perhaps he’s one of those players that doesn’t appeal to certain kinds of coaches, though he’s really flourished under new MUFC boss Michael Carrick.