Thomas Tuchel has explained why it was important to ensure that Manchester United midfielder Kobbie Mainoo made the England squad for the World Cup.
Kobbie Mainoo sparked a major turnaround in form in the second half of the 2025-26 Premier League season after Ruben Amorim was sacked at Manchester United.
The 21-year-old Stockport-born talent benefited from the arrival of Red Devils legend Michael Carrick, who restored Mainoo to the United starting XI.
Mainoo’s performances at Man Utd caught the eye of Thomas Tuchel and he earned his place back in the England national team during the March international break.
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Thomas Tuchel speaks out on Kobbie Mainoo’s inclusion in England’s 26-man squad for the World Cup
Manchester United star Kobbie Mainoo played in England’s international friendlies against Uruguay and Japan under Thomas Tuchel at Wembley back in March.
Tuchel announced his England squad on Friday and the 52-year-old German head coach included Mainoo in his 26-man Three Lions squad for the World Cup.
Speaking at his press conference, the former Chelsea boss pointed to Mainoo’s experience for his inclusion with the “huge chunk” of England talent in the squad.
“The squad has a significant number of players that will compete for starting minutes and starting places, [which] also gives us the chance to rotate on a high level and a significant number of players who carry the [sporting] responsibility on the highest level,” he said, as per BBC Sport.
“We have a huge chunk of youthfulness in the squad. We have six players who have won titles with the under-21s.
“We have Kobbie, who is still young and has won his titles [and] we have Nico O’Reilly on top, who is young and already won his medals.”
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Luke Shaw and Harry Maguire failed to make the England squad, but Mainoo and on-loan Man Utd forward Marcus Rashford were called up among Tuchel’s picks.
Despite snubbing the likes of Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw, Tuchel explained the importance of striking a balance across different areas of the Three Lions’ squad.
“We have specialists with us, specialists for all kinds of different scenarios, when we are leading, when we are chasing a game, a result,” he added.
“We’ve always said we want to be a strong set-piece team, so we have specialists for that and we want to be a strong penalty team, we have specialists for that.”
England are in Group L for the World Cup and the Three Lions will face Croatia, Ghana and Panama at the tournament in North America this summer.
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