Kobbie Mainoo must start for England at Euro 2024! Classy Man Utd midfielder can take Three Lions to the next level

The biggest selection decision facing Gareth Southgate heading into Euro 2024 is selecting who to partner Declan Rice with in midfield. Kalvin Phillips was Rice's partner at the last Euros and their partnership in the double-pivot took England to the brink of glory. But Phillips' career has gone downhill since then due to a combination of injuries and an ill-fated move to Manchester City, and he was left out of the preliminary squad for the tournament. So too was Jordan Henderson, who took Phillips' place for most of the World Cup in Qatar.

With Curtis Jones joining James Maddison in being cut from the final, 26-man squad, there are four primary candidates to partner Rice: Mainoo, Conor Gallagher, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Adam Wharton. There is also the option of selecting Cole Palmer from the start, and moving Jude Bellingham back alongside Rice. All offer different qualities, as well as weaknesses.

"That is the unknown," Southgate said this week. "Obviously, with Gallagher, with Mainoo, even with Wharton you know exactly what they can and what they can’t do. None of these players can do everything, so you are trying to work out what is the right balance. Obviously, Declan is going to be in there so what is the balance with him? That could be different for different games."

Right now, Gallagher appears to be in pole position to sit next to Rice in the midfield. He partnered the Arsenal midfielder against Brazil in March, when Southgate last fielded his strongest team, injuries permitting. And he started against Bosnia & Herzegovina on Monday, when he gave another eye-catching performance.

Eye-catching in the real sense, because it is impossible to ignore Gallagher, even in a friendly game that tests the attention span. Gallagher relishes flying into tackles and charging at opponents. He is a fan-favourite in that sense, a workhorse who will never shirk a challenge and will give their all.

Although he has other qualities and is still tidy in possession while being productive in attack, Gallagher is in many ways a classic England midfielder. To dig up that old cliche, he is someone you would want to have next to you in the trenches.

But as the late footballer Michael Robinson once said, football isn't played in a trench. And while Gallagher provides an ever-reliable engine, he sometimes does not know when to slow down. He goes at his own pace, which tends to be 100-miles-per-hour. And in knockout games of high tension, that is not what England need.

Just contrast Gallagher's statistics with Mainoo's in the March friendlies against Brazil and Belgium. Gallagher played 75 minutes against Brazil, taking 48 touches. He made 30 passes, 25 of which he completed, giving him a pass accuracy rate of 83 percent.

Mainoo replaced him and in just a quarter of an hour, plus stoppage-time, he took 21 touches and made 20 passes, completing every single one of them, leaving the pitch with 100% passing accuracy.

Mainoo took the baton from Gallagher for the next game against Belgium, also playing 75 minutes, and was one of the standout performers. He took 56 touches, made 46 passes while completing 41, posting 89% passing accuracy.

Mainoo then did not feature against Bosnia as he had not yet joined up with the camp, having been given a few days extra rest after playing, and starring, in United's FA Cup final victory over Manchester City.

Had the teenager played against Bosnia, it is easy to imagine he would have left Gallagher in the shade. After all, he had just helped United do what no other team could do for almost six months and beat City. United were also the first side to beat a team containing Rodri for more than a year. Rodri is widely regarded as the best holding midfielder in the world, but at Wembley, Mainoo outshone him.

Against City, Mainoo scored one of the great FA Cup final team goals, starting and finishing a sublime, flowing move. His finish inside the area summed him up; where many players would have put their foot through the ball and risked sending it over the bar, Mainoo simply guided it past Stefan Ortega. His finish summed up his whole performance: calm, controlled, subtle and exactly what was needed. It was the complete opposite of what one expects from Gallagher.

Another argument in Mainoo's favour in his battle with Gallagher is the fact that Chelsea are trying to sell their midfielder. The Premier League's Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) and the fact that the club could put the sale of homegrown Gallagher down as 'pure profit' might be a motivating factor, but it does not speak highly of Chelsea's valuation of him.

United are governed by the same rules and are also close to the limit on PSR, but Mainoo is one of just three players that the club have insisted will not be for sale this summer. United do not see their homegrown treasure as cash cow; they see him as the club's very future.

The good news for England is that Mainoo is not their only highly skilled, ball-playing holding midfielder. The 19-year-old faces fresh competition from the squad's newest member Wharton, as well as Alexander-Arnold.

Wharton, 20, was barely known outside of regular observers of the Championship until he moved from Blackburn Rovers to Crystal Palace on February 1, but played his way into the preliminary squad by leading the Eagles' resurgence under Oliver Glasner.

And he had an exemplary England debut against Bosnia, completing all 36 passes in little more than half-an-hour on the pitch. "Unflappable" was how Southgate described his performance. "That ability to receive and see a picture early isn’t something you should underestimate."

He then compared Wharton and Mainoo to two modern midfield greats. "You immediately start to think of [Toni] Kroos and [Luka] Modric and those types. They've had a decade or more of how to control the rhythm of a game," he said.

"That’s a step beyond where we’re at with Wharton and Mainoo. They’re really tender in their development. They’re doing really well and we’re excited about working with them, but we’ve got to be realistic about what that’s going to look like in terms of controlling the tempo at the highest possible level, which is also a step that none of them have seen yet."

Wharton has made a compelling case to make the 26-man squad and has a slight edge on Mainoo in terms of experience, establishing himself in Blackburn's first team two seasons ago, when the United midfielder was still in the Red Devils' youth set-up.

But Mainoo has more of a knack of making the difference in the final third, something that will be of real value in the knockout stages of the tournament. He scored his first senior goal against Newport County in January, and days later netted a stunning stoppage-time winner at Wolves. He also landed a sumptuous goal against Liverpool, in addition to scoring against City at Wembley. He can, therefore, deliver in clutch moments.

So too can Alexander-Arnold, who scored an exquisite volley against Bosnia. Southgate has brought the Liverpool right-back into midfield within the last year, but it was telling that he played his best football against Bosnia when he reverted to the position he plays for his club after an underwhelming display in the first half. Playing Alexander-Arnold in a role he does not always play at club level is risky business, and for all his qualities on the ball and his passing range, he can lack positional awareness out of possession.

Mainoo, however, has been playing as a holding midfielder ever since he burst into the United first team in November after recovering from an ankle injury. And for long periods he had to carry Casemiro, who looked a spent force for most of the season.

Just imagine what he could do next to Rice, who is at the peak of his powers. Forget Gallagher, Alexander-Arnold and even the new boy wonder Wharton; Mainoo should be at the front of the queue to start England's Euro 2024 opener against Serbia.

It's time to unleash the Stockport maestro and let him take England to places they have never been before, dictating games on their way to hoisting the Henri Delaunay Cup in Berlin on July 14.