Graeme Souness has criticised Kobbie Mainoo for 'not understanding his position' after England's crushing 2-1 defeat by Spain in the Euro 2024 final last Sunday.
The Manchester United midfielder, 19, enjoyed his breakthrough season at Old Trafford last campaign, establishing himself as a regular under Erik ten Hag before earning his stripes with the Three Lions ahead of the European Championship.
Mainoo began the tournament on the bench — as Gareth Southgate experimented during the group stage with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Conor Gallagher alongside Declan Rice in midfield — but started all four knockout matches after frequently impressing as a substitute.
The teenager shone as one of England's brightest players against Slovakia, Switzerland and the Netherlands, earning his place for the final after just eight caps for his country.
Mainoo struggled to make an impact during the showpiece in Berlin and was hooked off midway through the second half for substitute Cole Palmer, who cancelled out Nico Williams' strike with a superb equaliser from outside the box before Mikel Oyarzabal scored a heartbreaking 86th-minute winning goal for Spain.
Despite admitting that Mainoo is 'very talented on the ball', Souness criticised the youngster for his 'naivety' in an England shirt, claiming that he 'wanders' too far from his position in midfield.
'I think he's really good on the ball, he's very talented on the ball,' Souness told 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 (during England's last 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 (during England's first Euro 2024 game 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.'
The former Liverpool midfielder also slammed England's style of play during the final, highlighting Rice's lack of ambition in particular.
'England were at their best when they went a goal behind,' he 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!'
Southgate resigned from his role as England manager after nearly eight years in charge on Tuesday, prompting the FA to make a five-man shortlist of potential successors including Newcastle boss Eddie Howe, England U21 manager Lee Carsley and three former Chelsea head coaches: Thomas Tuchel, Mauricio Pochettino and Graham Potter.
