'It's insulting Mainoo's not playing'

[Getty Images] Manchester United midfielder Kobbie Mainoo has yet to feature for England at the 2026 World Cup with Declan Rice and Elliot Anderson emerging as Thomas Tuchel's preferred starters in central midfield. When Rice was injured for the final group game against Panama, Tuchel made a tactical change to start Morgan Rogers and then Jordan Henderson was preferred to come on from the bench. While former United striker Wayne Rooney has called for the England boss to play Mainoo ahead of Anderson when England face DR Congo in the last 32, BBC Radio Manchester's The Devils' Advocate podcast host Gaz Drinkwater and guest Jay Motty have branded the lack of minutes "insulting". Gaz said: "The biggest insult of all, for me Jordan Henderson coming on ahead of Kobbie Mainoo is ridiculous." Jay added: "I'll go even further, I think the biggest insult of all is that Kobbie Mainoo's not starting for England. "I don't think you need Rice and Anderson in the group stages and I know Rice was injured but that should have been the opportunity then for Mainoo to start and he still wouldn't start him. You've moved Bellingham deeper and started Rogers. "You don't need two players that are similar. They're very good. I'm not saying Rice and Anderson aren't good players, but do you really need Rice and Anderson against Ghana or against Croatia even? I don't think you do. "I think Mainoo and one of Rice and Anderson, it's probably going to be Rice isn't it because of his experience and the fact that he's an England stalwart, works perfectly. We saw it in the Euros. "It worked perfectly and got us to the final and for some reason Tuchel prefers having these two sort of similar players and even then when one of them is injured, he shuffles it and even going further than that when you're rotating players around with substitutions, he still won't bring Mainoo on. "The thing that baffles me about this is Mainoo is a better player than Jordan Henderson. I think he's got more talent. I think he's fitter. That's probably the least controversial opinion I've ever had. I don't even think Jordan Henderson would disagree with that one to be honest with you." Listen to the full episode of The Devils' Advocate on BBC Sounds