{"id":734586,"date":"2026-06-30T09:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T09:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/734586\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T09:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T09:50:09","slug":"world-cup-2026-wayne-rooney-would-start-kobbie-mainoo-against-dr-congo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/734586\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: Wayne Rooney would start Kobbie Mainoo against DR Congo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The game kicks off at 17:00 BST and is live on BBC One and BBC Radio 5 Live.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Former England striker Emile Heskey, speaking on the show, said he was surprised Tuchel turned to 36-year-old Brentford midfielder Jordan Henderson and not Mainoo for the closing stages of the 2-0 group win over Panama.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I was surprised Jordan Henderson was in the squad,&#8221; said Heskey. &#8220;And to see out the game you bring on a 30-something-year-old and not a 20-something-year-old to do the same.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He probably has three more tournaments ahead of him and can grow into the tournament. I&#8217;m not sure how I&#8217;d feel as Kobbie Mainoo.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Speaking about the Panama game, Rooney said: &#8220;Against a team with a low block you can play Bellingham deeper. He&#8217;s a player with intensity, desire and drive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Morgan Rogers is better suited with his back to goal than Bellingham. Against bigger teams you&#8217;ll see Jude in that position.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">On Anderson&#8217;s potential record move and performances for England, Heskey said: &#8220;You have to look past the price tag. The beating stick is always going to be the price tag.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Rooney said: &#8220;He&#8217;s a fantastic player. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I&#8217;m gutted Manchester United didn&#8217;t get him but we&#8217;ve seen it when players go for big-money moves &#8211; like Kalvin Phillips and Jack Grealish to some extent &#8211; they [sometimes] don&#8217;t fit in.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Asked about Rice and Anderson playing as defensive midfielders, Rooney said: &#8220;In the Ghana game I don&#8217;t think it was needed.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The game kicks off at 17:00 BST and is live on BBC One and BBC Radio 5 Live.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-734586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}