Manchester United starlet after Rangers win: Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho inspire me

Manchester United starlet Maxi Oyedele has named Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho as two of his inspirations following a fantastic display against Rangers in pre-season.

Manchester United displayed a much more positive performance compared to their opening summer fixture against Rosenborg, with impressive contributions from Jadon Sancho, Toby Collyer, and Amad Diallo.

Amad opened the scoring after 30 minutes, cutting inside from the right-wing byline to beat his defender before unleashing a powerful left-footed shot past Jack Butland into the bottom left corner.

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In the second half, Erik ten Hag made sweeping changes, substituting all 10 outfield players, while André Onana remained in goal, ensuring maximum playing time for everyone.

The game was initially slow in the second half but came to life when Joe Hugill scored United’s second goal. He struck a thunderous shot from the edge of the area that hit the underside of the bar and went in after 70 minutes.

Although Hugill’s goal will rightly take plaudits, it was Maxi Oyedele’s quality play that allowed Hugill the chance to strike, and the 19-year-old spoke following the game about how good he feels ahead of the coming season.

Yeah, I feel good,” Oyedele told club media following his 45 minutes on the pitch against Rangers. “I mean, a big improvement since last game. Yeah, I feel good.”

Oyedele was the one who assisted Hugill with his brilliant strike, but the youngster showed he wants to continue improving following the assist: “I’m still a bit frustrated at myself for being a bit naive after the assist. But, no, yeah, just doing my job, finding Joe, and it’s a great finish from Joe, to be fair.”

Finally, Oyedele detailed that seeing players such as Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho, whom he has played with at the youth level, breakthrough into the first team and have such a significant impact at Old Trafford motivates and inspires him to pave his own way.

“Yeah, I mean, you look at, like, Kobbie and Garna. Two lads breaking through from the academy, playing with them at youth cup level. So, yeah, it’s great to see, and it’s a motivation for us. So, opportunities like this are great, and, yeah, hope for more.”

Oyedele is one who will almost certainly be on the plane to the USA on Wednesday with the rest of the United first team as they face Arsenal, Real Betis, and Liverpool before returning to England, where they will kick off 2024/25 with a fixture against Manchester City at Wembley Stadium in the 2024 Community Sheild.

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