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Manchester United supporters had witnessed this scenario before … Kobbie Mainoo left sitting on the sidelines when every logical instinct suggested he should have been out on the field.
But when England required a calm midfield presence to navigate 40 more minutes of what was on course to be their first men's World Cup semifinal victory in six decades, Thomas Tuchel channeled more Ruben Amorim than Michael Carrick.
With England holding a 1–0 lead over Argentina, Tuchel overlooked Mainoo entirely. Instead, he called upon Ezri Konsa, Dan Burn and Nico O'Reilly in an attempt to contain the defending champions rather than control possession. That approach had proven effective against Mexico and Norway, but Argentina—with Lionel Messi suddenly unleashed after being restricted in the opening hour—proved an entirely different challenge.
Just moments before Enzo Fernández's equalizer, England was set up in a 5-4-1 formation, with six defenders on the field—four of them natural center backs.
Every time England cleared the ball from their box, it came straight back. The pressure was unrelenting. Maintaining possession was impossible, with Declan Rice already a fitness concern in the buildup and eventually substituted off three minutes before Fernández's strike. Elliot Anderson and Jude Bellingham had given everything they had and were completely spent.
England Left Crying Out for Mainoo's Skillset
Mainoo watched the entire collapse from the bench. Across seven matches at this World Cup, the Manchester United midfielder has yet to feature for a single minute.
He remains the only midfielder in the England squad not to have set foot on the pitch. Jordan Henderson, 36, suffered such a severe wrist fracture during the post-match celebrations following the Mexico win that it required surgery. Yet he had previously been introduced in the closing minutes of the dead rubber victory over Panama.
Defender Trevoh Chalobah, who was only drafted into the squad the day before England's tournament opener as an emergency injury cover, is the sole other outfield player without a single minute—22 players have seen action. The remaining two in that category are reserve goalkeepers Dean Henderson and James Trafford, who could not have reasonably expected to feature in the tournament regardless.
Mainoo may still get minutes in Saturday's third-place playoff against France, a match also likely to feature rotated squads, but that offers little more than hollow comfort when the meaningful part of the tournament has already concluded.
Tuchel Ignores Mainoo Predecent
The past 12 months have been a genuinely strange journey for Mainoo.
His first start of the 2025–26 Premier League season didn't arrive until after Amorim's departure from Manchester United on January 4. Darren Fletcher got things moving by naming Mainoo in the starting XI for an FA Cup loss to Brighton & Hove Albion, before Michael Carrick refused to let months of limited match time stand in the way of a remarkable comeback story.
Carrick chose to hand Mainoo a start in a Manchester derby in his very first match as manager, and the homegrown talent delivered. He covered every blade of grass and misplaced just three passes throughout the entire game.
From that point on, Mainoo never looked back and never lost his place—he started every remaining Premier League fixture and completed 90 minutes in nearly all of them.
Tuchel was sufficiently impressed by Mainoo's club performances that he handed him a first England call-up in 18 months for the March internationals against Japan and Uruguay—the final fixtures before the manager announced his World Cup squad in May.
With Manchester United wrapping up the Premier League campaign in third place and Mainoo playing a pivotal role, his inclusion on the flight to the U.S. came as little surprise in the end.
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Even when he found himself out of the starting lineup for the early group stage matches against Croatia and Ghana, supporters held out hope for a narrative similar to his England breakthrough at Euro 2024, when Mainoo stepped into the XI as the knockout rounds began and excelled as the team advanced to the final.
He will head back to club football as a key figure once again next season, with Carrick now confirmed as permanent manager. However, his England future remains uncertain for as long as Tuchel remains in charge or fails to learn from the mistakes of this World Cup.