Nicky Butt Urges Mainoo to Skip Third-Place Game and Calls for Tuchel's Exit

Nicky Butt has never been one for half-measures. As England lick their wounds after a brutal World Cup semi-final defeat to Argentina, the former Manchester United midfielder has gone on the offensive – urging Kobbie Mainoo to snub the third-place play-off and calling for Thomas Tuchel to be sacked.

For Butt, the situation is simple. Mainoo has been dragged to the tournament, talked up as part of England’s future, and then left to watch the entire campaign from the bench.

Now, with nothing tangible on the line, Tuchel is expected to turn to him.

Butt’s message? Don’t do it.

‘I’d just refuse to play’

Mainoo forced his way into Tuchel’s final squad on the back of a superb second half of the season at Old Trafford, sparked by Michael Carrick’s arrival as interim manager. At 21, he arrived at the World Cup as one of the few bright, progressive midfield options England possess.

He hasn’t played a single minute.

Seven games. Seven times on the bench. England’s run ended in heartbreak on Wednesday night against Argentina, and only now, with a third-place decider against France looming on Saturday, is Mainoo tipped to start. Kick-off is 10pm BST. The stakes are low. The risk, Butt argues, is not.

“I do not know what is going on there, there’s something not quite right with it,” Butt said.

“Now they’re going to play the bomb squad in the stupid third-place game.

“I’d just refuse to play if I was Kobbie Mainoo. I’d say I was injured. It’s a nonsense game, especially when you’ve been treated like that.

“He’s not played a minute of football, now to go and start this pointless jumped-up friendly and potentially get injured for the whole season… no.”

It is a brutal assessment, but it cuts to the heart of a familiar debate: what value does a third-place play-off really hold for a young player whose entire club season lies ahead?

‘No way he can stay on’

Butt’s frustration is not limited to Mainoo’s treatment. His real fury is aimed at the man in charge.

Tuchel, hailed as an elite club coach when he took the England job, now finds his position under intense scrutiny after what Butt describes as “crazy negative football” in the semi-final against a “beatable” Argentina side.

“There’s no way he [Tuchel] can stay on. Not a cat in hell’s chance after that,” Butt said.

“If he stays on, John McDermott [the FA’s technical director] needs to be sacked as well.

“There’s no way you can keep him now. He’s not a Sir Bobby Robson or Kevin Keegan, someone that the nation loves.

“You’re talking about a manager that’s come in and played negative football, crazy negative football, in the semi-final against a beatable Argentina team.

“And it shouldn’t really matter, but people will go against him because he’s German as well, so he’s going to have a nightmare.

“He’s an unbelievable club manager, so just let him go. He won’t want to stay. He might say he does, but deep down he’ll be thinking, ‘pay up, I’m out of here’.”

The charge sheet is clear: a cautious approach in the biggest game, a failure to tap into the country’s emotional core, and now a perception that the England job simply does not suit him.

Howe, Pochettino – and a Pep dream on hold

If Tuchel goes, what then? Butt has no doubt there are better fits for the role right now, and he names names.

“If we were nine months down the line, I’d definitely be going for Pep Guardiola. But Pep can’t leave Man City a month ago, saying he needs a rest from football, and then go straight back in. He can’t do that.

“Eddie Howe would be brilliant. I’d love him to go in, it’d be great.

“Mauricio Pochettino’s got an unbelievable relationship with John McDermott. When McDermott was the academy manager at Tottenham, Pochettino was the manager, and they had a really, really good relationship.

“I was in and around it with the Manchester United academy, we would do training camps there so I’ve seen it first hand.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened and I wouldn’t be against it at all. He’s a very, very good manager. A likeable person, plays good football everywhere he goes.

“But we all said the same about Tuchel, yet when they go into that England dynamic, they just change, it’s crazy. I can’t put my finger on why.”

Howe represents the meticulous builder, the English coach who has rebuilt Newcastle with structure and intensity. Pochettino offers emotional intelligence, front-foot football and a proven bond with McDermott from their Spurs days. Guardiola, for now, remains a fantasy – the ideal candidate at the wrong moment.

A pointless game, a pivotal moment

So England head into a third-place game that Butt dismisses as “pointless”, with a manager under fire and a young midfielder at a crossroads.

Mainoo is expected to finally step onto the World Cup stage against France, the night after being ignored for the entire run. For some, it is a chance to blood a talent on the international scene. For Butt, it is an unnecessary gamble that underlines everything he believes is wrong with Tuchel’s handling of the squad.

The World Cup will not be decided on Saturday. England’s future might be.

Does Mainoo risk it for a game his former academy chief calls a “jumped-up friendly”? And does the FA double down on Tuchel, or listen to voices like Butt’s and tear up the plan before the next cycle even begins?