Paul Scholes suggests England star will be ‘fuming’ with Thomas Tuchel after World Cup

Paul Scholes has suggested Kobbie Mainoo and several other players will be ‘fuming’ with Thomas Tuchel in the wake of England’s World Cup campaign.

England had looked to be heading for only a second World Cup final appearance after Anthony Gordon fired the Three Lions in front after 55 minutes against Argentina.

But Tuchel’s men adopted an ultra-defensive approach after taking the lead and were duly punished for their negativity as a pair of late goals from Enzo Fernandez and Lautaro Martinez steered Argentina into the final, where they were beaten by Spain.

In the intervening days, Tuchel has faced a wave of criticism from fans and pundits alike for his cautious tactics and substitutions, with some even calling for the German to resign.

Tuchel’s treatment of Bukayo Saka has proven an especially divisive topic of conversation after the Arsenal forward was left on the bench against Argentina, only to score a hat-trick in England’s bronze-medal victory over France.

There are also question marks surrounding Tuchel’s flat-out refusal to turn to Manchester United midfielder Mainoo, who finished the campaign without playing a single minute for his country.

After England’s defeat of France, Tuchel claimed Mainoo was not available for the match due to a back injury.

‘He can pull a fast one but I don’t expect Kobbie Mainoo to do that because he’ll want to play football,’ ex-England and United midfielder Scholes said of Mainoo’s absence on his The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast with Nicky Butt.

‘I think there will be a few players fuming with the manager.

‘Now look, it happens all the time, even when there’s a squad of 22, there’s going to be players who go to a World Cup who don’t get involved, but there’s a way of doing it.

‘Sometimes, you can half understand if your team’s doing alright but it was crying out for a player who can take the ball, control the game of football and he [Mainoo] wasn’t even given a sniff.’

According to Scholes, Tuchel’s treatment of Mainoo would have made a little more sense had England been playing scintillating football throughout the tournament.

He added: ‘Kobbie would be fine if the team were playing well, “Oh yeah, good, I can understand that”, but when your team is playing that badly… they didn’t play well right throughout the tournament, let’s have it right.

‘It felt like it was anything but Kobbie. Anybody but Kobbie.’

In the build-up to Saturday’s bronze-medal contest, Scholes’ long-time team-mate Butt encouraged Mainoo to boycott the ‘nonsense’ match given how he had been treated by Tuchel.

And despite England going on to beat France, Butt is confident Mainoo will not be the only player feeling frustrated with the manager.

‘I tell you something, he would have lost a lot of players in that dressing room,’ Butt said in response to Scholes’ remarks.

‘I’m looking at it from my point of view in the dressing room. If I’d have been treated like some of those players, and I mean good players, you’d be thinking, “I don’t want to play… I love my country, I want to play for my country every moment I get, it’s the proudest moment of my life playing for my country. However, I don’t want to play for him”, and a few players will be saying that, I guarantee you.’

Scholes believes there could be a ‘selfishness’ problem within the England camp.

‘Let’s compare our players to Spain, I think we’ve got better players,’ Scholes – who represented the Three Lions at two World Cups – continued.

‘It might sound f***ing stupid, that, but I think we’ve got better players than Spain individually.

‘But our biggest issue, and this isn’t just an issue for this World Cup… even when we were playing, it’s not a team.

‘Everybody is too concerned about their own performance. We’ve got some brilliantly talented footballers but very selfish.’

Though Scholes remains a fan of Tuchel, he feels the German hasn’t helped himself with the comments he made in the aftermath of the side’s semi-final exit.

‘I really like the manager as I’ve said on here before,’ he went on.

‘I think his comments since the game have actually made it worse than the actual performances, saying that, “It’s not in the English DNA”, and stuff. You’re part of that DNA now, Thomas.

‘He’s gone on the defensive and he’s blamed players a lot. That’s something our manager [Sir Alex Ferguson] would never do.

‘He [Ferguson] would blame us behind closed doors, of course he would, on training grounds and in meetings, but never in public.

‘But I think Thomas Tuchel has a bit of a history of this at football clubs, he blames players all the time and falls out with sporting directors.

‘You’re just wondering, with the way he’s been speaking, does he want to get sacked? Sometimes they’ve got a way around doing it.’

Despite calls for Tuchel to lose his job following the side’s painful defeat to Argentina, the FA reportedly plan to keep faith with the former Chelsea, PSG and Bayern Munich manager.

Tuchel put pen to paper on a two-year extension with the Three Lions in February, with his contract running through to Euro 2028.

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