Graeme Souness has slammed Kobbie Mainoo, saying the Manchester United midfielder ‘doesn’t grasp his position’ after shining for England at Euro 2024.
Mainoo began the Euros on England’s bench, but shined in group stage cameos, earning starts in all four knockout games.
The 19-year-old was one of England’s best players against Slovakia, Switzerland, and the Netherlands before failing to impress in the final against Spain.
However, just being in a big final was a huge milestone for a man who had only played 35 games for Manchester United and made his first league start less than 12 months ago.
Souness says Mainoo is ‘really talented on the ball’ but has criticised his positional awareness and says he has shown ‘naivety’ at times in an England shirt.
‘I think he’s really good on the ball, he’s very talented on the ball,’ Souness said on the Up Front podcast.
‘But he doesn’t fully understand the position. He wanders, he empties the middle of the field too readily.
‘I watched him against Iceland [in England’s final Euro 2024 warm-up game] and he was getting thrown to the left and thrown to the right.
‘He came on as a substitute when holding onto a 1-0 lead [in the Euro 2024 opener against Serbia] and the first thing he did was chase down the goalkeeper and try to put him under pressure.
‘It’s naivety, he’s still learning the game.’
Souness, regarded as one of the best midfielders in Liverpool’s history, has also slammed Mainoo’s England team-mate Declan Rice following his performances at the Euros.
Rice enjoyed an impressive first season at Premier League runners-up Arsenal but struggled to reproduce that form for England this summer.
“When they trailed by a goal, England was at their best,” Souness continued. They suddenly began to take chances.
They needed to have more guts to accept the chance of making a mistake, spreading it, or trying to trick someone.
In the final, like it had during the entire competition, they were simply moving sideways or backwards, which was driving me crazy.
After some investigation, I discovered that Declan Rice only completed one forward pass while playing Spain. It’s hardly conceivable for a midfield player to produce one successful forward pass in ninety minutes!