Graeme Souness says Man Utd star Kobbie Mainoo ‘doesn’t understand his position’ despite impressing at Euro 2024

Graeme Souness has criticised Kobbie Mainoo, claiming the Manchester United midfielder ‘doesn’t understand his position’ despite impressing for England at Euro 2024.

Mainoo began the Euros on England’s bench but impressed in group-stage cameos to then be handed starts in all four knockout games.

The 19-year-old was one of England’s better players against Slovakia, Switzerland and the Netherlands before struggling to make an impact in the final against Spain.

But just featuring in a major final was a huge moment for a player who has 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.

‘England were at their best when they went a goal behind,’ Souness added. ‘All of a sudden they started taking risks.

‘They had to be braver and risk making a mistake, risk passing it forward or trying to play someone in.

‘Instead they were just going sideways or backwards and it was driving me mad in the final, as it had done the whole tournament.

‘I did some research and found that Declan Rice only completed one forward pass against Spain. One completed forward pass in 90 minutes for a midfield player… that’s impossible!’

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