Michael Carrick feels Man Utd trio ‘right in the picture’ for England recalls

Manchester United boss Michael Carrick would love to see Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw and Kobbie Mainoo handed England recalls when Thomas Tuchel makes his final selection before naming his World Cup squad.

The German has not picked anybody playing for the Red Devils – a club with whom he was in talks to replace Erik ten Hag in mid-2024 – since succeeding Sir Gareth Southgate at the start of last year.

Maguire is a veteran of three major tournaments with England and won the last of his 64 caps 18 months ago, which is also when Mainoo made the most recent of his 10 international appearances.

The 20-year-old started the Euro 2024 final with United team-mate Shaw, who is another hoping to be included on Friday when Tuchel names his group for March’s friendlies against Uruguay and Japan.

United head coach and former England midfielder Carrick said: “I haven’t been in touch (with Tuchel), no.

“For the boys, I’d love to see them picked for this one and obviously picked for the summer.

“I don’t have any influence on that but certainly the boys, the way they’re playing, I think they’ve put themselves right in the conversation and right in the picture and given themselves a chance.

“So, we’ll see. I literally don’t know any more than you on that one.

“But the boys are definitely playing well enough to warrant a place, for sure. It’s just not my decision so we’ll have to wait and see.”

Tuchel said omissions of United players were merely an “individual decision” back in August, when he reiterated “there is for sure no decision against Man United”.

Mainoo’s absence was particularly understandable given he did not make a Premier League start in the first half of the season, but he has been a key figure under Carrick.

“Of course he can always improve, and on a lot of things, just the age he’s at just for starters,” Carrick said ahead of Friday’s trip to Bournemouth.

“There’s so much more to come and develop, and that’s just natural. That’s not a negative on Kobbie, by any stretch. That’s just the stage he’s at in his career.

“Hopefully he has got a lot of layers to improve and keep developing on that.

“I think he’s done really well. You know, not having a lot of football for a period of time, to come in and play a run of games and find your rhythm, I think he did that really quickly.

“There’s a natural kind of a flow, and I thought he was really good again on the weekend and put in a performance where he did a little bit of everything, and controlled the game in spells, defended when he had to defend and I’m really impressed with him.”

Lisandro Martinez, Matthijs de Ligt and Patrick Dorgu are out of third-placed United’s trip to the south coast but Noussair Mazraoui is expected to be available despite missing training on Wednesday though illness.