Kobbie Mainoo was once the future star of Erik ten Hag’s midfield, but since the arrival of Rúben Amorim, there have been questions surrounding whether he will stay at Manchester United.
After Kobbie Mainoo’s incredibly steep rise to stardom at Manchester United last season, it feels like total insanity that there are reports indicating the club would consider selling him.
Yet for a large part of Ruben Amorim’s reign in charge, there have been reports indicating he is not safe as United looks to raise needed cash. Some justify this with the idea that he ‘doesn’t fit’ in Amorim’s 3-4-3 system.
It has been reported that United would seek a fee of £70 million for Mainoo should he be placed on the market this summer. The two parties have yet to agree on a contract extension.
Mainoo has suffered from injury for parts of the Amorim era and had a few games where he struggled in an unbalanced Manchester United midfield, and this only fuels the speculation surrounding him.
But when you look beyond the surface, which UtdDistrict do in this article, are these claims of him not working for Amorim’s setup really credible?
Versatile qualities as a player
In this system already, Mainoo has played as both a number 10 and as one of the midfield pivots and has looked good in both roles. Already that shows he has qualities that can thrive in different roles.
Mainoo’s skill set is incredibly well-developed for his age. He has a wide range of tools that he applies well to solve in-game problems. Specifically, his ability in tight spaces with the ball and under pressure all over the pitch is incredibly valuable and contributes positively to United’s possession.
Mainoo is also strong in his duels, rarely getting knocked off the ball and often doing it to others, which has a lot of value both in and out of possession. His tackling technique is good, and he reads and deals with danger well in smaller spaces. He struggles when he has to defend larger spaces, but this is something most players struggle with.
In his short career, fans have already seen Mainoo operate in all three traditional midfield roles – the 6, 8, and 10 – and perform well. He has shown he can be the first player to receive in the middle, collecting the ball in the first phase of possession, taking charge of playmaking in midfield for a team, and pushing higher up and impacting the final third. This is not restricted to central zones, either, with several highlights coming from wider areas too.
When a player has such a large skillset, it’s harder to not fit them into a system than it is to see them thrive playing in that setup. The best systems maximise the qualities of the players and when a player has as much quality as Mainoo does, the manager’s system shouldn’t alienate that, and so far I don’t believe Amorim’s has.
Out of possession setup impact on performance
Mainoo has looked his best in midfield when he has somebody to cover him, allowing him to join the attack and also reducing his workload out of possession.
In Casemiro’s recent resurgence, Amorim has adapted his midfield to have Casemiro sit and cover more, instead of joining the press like Manuel Ugarte was doing. Mainoo and Casemiro previously showed they work well together and started in United’s 4-0 win over Everton – Amorim’s biggest so far.
The addition of Patrick Dorgu and improvement of Diogo Dalot at wing back has helped too, by starting higher the wing backs restrict the space outside of the midfield pivot which means less space to cover laterally, and also stops them being played around so easily meaning they don’t have to be running up and down to defend as much as before.
Out of possession you want to make the job of your players easier, not harder, and in a lot of the games Mainoo played in the job was hard from an out of possession standpoint. Tweaks have been made in his absence, without the principles of play being compromised, and things are nicely set up for Mainoo to slot straight back into the team when he is fit again, and look even better than he did before.
Amorim himself has admitted that he is still learning about the players, mentioning this when asked about Casemiro’s renewed importance in a recent interview. Mainoo talk is likely all speculative, but the idea of him not fitting a system when the manager is new and, by his own admission, still learning is an incredibly premature conclusion to come to.
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