"100%": Wayne Rooney makes bold Kobbie Mainoo claim ahead of Euro 2024

05/30/2024 10:00 PM

Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney has said that he would choose to play Kobbie Mainoo over Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold in the England midfield at Euro 2024.

Mainoo endured an extremely successful individual campaign despite United’s struggles on the pitch.

The 19-year-old easily broke into Erik ten Hag’s plans soon after his recovery from an injury picked up in pre-season and has since never looked back.

He impressed with his calm and composed displays that often made him stand out head and shoulders above some of his senior and more experienced teammates. Mainoo capped his season by scoring in the FA Cup final last weekend as United beat Manchester City 2-1 at Wembley.

Mainoo was included in Gareth Southgate’s provisional squad ahead of Euro 2024 and the expectation is that he will be part of the final list before the summer tournament kicks off in Germany

One player who was not called up by Southgate was Jordan Henderson and there has been a lot of talk about who will replace him.

It has been suggested that one solution to offset Henderson’s absence would be to deploy Alexander-Arnold slightly higher up the pitch, in the middle of the park – a role he is familiar with.

However, according to Rooney who spoke on The Overlap, the Three Lions would be best served by utilizing Mainoo instead of the Liverpool star.

Rooney said, ” I have watched Trent play in midfield a few times and I think you lose a lot of his qualities. His delivery is obviously incredible and of course he can pick passes from midfield, but I think he has to fight it out [with Walker for the right-back spot].”

“I know Kyle is the best right-back in the world at the minute but I think midfield is such an important position. I would play Mainoo before Trent in midfield, 100%.”

“It's not that Trent can't play there, we saw him do it recently against Everton and some of the passes he was hitting were unbelievable. It's probably only Becks [David Beckham] who beats him in that area.”

Rooney added, “But I think to play in midfield, you need that discipline, especially when you come up against the bigger teams, and he might get found out a little bit.”

The United legend backed England to do well at the Euros now that they have an element of fear around them.