Kobbie Mainoo has impressed during Manchester United’s pre-season so far and the midfielder is keen to work in different partnerships ahead of the new season.
Manchester United are now three games into their pre-season tour and the team look much sharper than many expected them to be.
After a 0-0 draw with Leeds in Sweden, Ruben Amorim’s team have won 2-1 against West Ham and 4-1 against Bournemouth in the United States.
In all three of those games, Kobbie Mainoo has stood out as one of the most impressive players and, interestingly, he has played in the deeper midfield role in two of those matches.
Amorim seemed to prefer the youngster further up the field last term but after working hard over the summer it looks like Mainoo will return to that midfield pivot more often going forward.
Amorim receives green light from Mainoo to test new partnership
Mainoo has been paired with Manuel Ugarte in the games where he’s played deeper and they have worked well together.
But a lot of the time next season, Bruno Fernandes will be playing that that midfield pivot, especially with Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha in the team.
Amorim should be considering playing Mainoo and Fernandes together in midfield during pre-season, with Everton the next game, as it is the biggest question surrounding Mainoo’s ability to play deeper – whether he can compliment the captain there.
Mainoo himself has been happy with his deeper role in pre-season and said that he is comfortable playing with all different midfield partners, including Fernandes.
“Yeah it’s been good,” the 20-year-old replied when asked by MUTV whether he has been enjoying the pre-season games in midfield.
“Playing in there with Manu [Ugarte], Bruno or any of them – Casemiro, Toby [Collyer], it’s always good there.”
This is what pre-season is for
Pre-season so far is starting to solve some issues in terms of personnel for the Premier League opener against Arsenal.
But the makeup of the midfield is still probably the biggest question mark. Fernandes played alongside Casemiro last time out but the Brazilian did not perform well.
Mainoo is looking much fitter this summer and that is helping him with the demands in that role, but it is very different playing alongside Ugarte to Fernandes.
Pre-season is all about testing these different things and it would be good to see how Fernandes and Mainoo perform alongside each other in the engine room.
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