Kobbie Mainoo’s New Edge Suggests He Can Be Man Utd’s Midfield ‘Monster’
Kobbie Mainoo is a classy player, but inManchester United‘s win over Ipswich he impressed in new ways. Could this be the season he takes his all-round game to another level?
A few eyebrows were raised when, in November 2023, with pressure growing having seen his Manchester United side lose nine of their first 18 games of the season in all competitions, Erik ten Hag started an 18-year-old in central midfield away to Everton.
Kobbie Mainoo was already highly rated by the club and supporters, but he’d not made a single appearance in 2023-24 due to injury. And then there he was, thrown straight into the starting XI for the first time at Goodison Park.
It was a game perhaps more remembered for Alejandro Garnacho’s remarkable bicycle kick, but Mainoo earned rave reviews for a hugely mature performance.
“Nice and brave, lots of courage; I loved watching him,” former United captain Roy Keane said on Sky Sports. “He looked like he always had time on the ball. His decision-making, in terms of when to go long, when to go short, in terms of off the ball as well…what an all-round performance.”
It was a statement performance, a real arrival.
United return to Everton this weekend and Mainoo will almost certainly start again having become a key part of Michael Carrick’s team. In light of an excellent display against Ipswich Town last weekend, it’s a fitting opportunity to reflect on his journey to date, one that hasn’t been quite as smooth as his Goodison Park debut suggested it might be, but which appears to be firmly back on track.
Of course, it wasn’t so long ago that Mainoo could barely get a kick under Ruben Amorim.
The Portuguese coach made his feelings about Mainoo clear fairly early on in his ill-fated reign, saying in January 2025 that he “was struggling a lot defending as a midfielder”.
Essentially, he outlined the situation as Mainoo being in competition with Bruno Fernandes for one of two central positions, but the United captain was almost always available.
There was a clear reluctance to use Mainoo alongside Fernandes, and so the youngster’s gametime suffered massively, to the extent he was widely linked with moves away. Such rumours attracted fury from supporters, and the lack of faith from Amorim led to questioning from a fairly bemused press pack.
“You love Kobbie, he starts for England. But that doesn’t mean that I need to put Kobbie [in] when I feel that I shouldn’t put Kobbie [in], so it’s my decision,” Amorim said in December last year.
Amorim was probably just doing what he felt was right for the team, but sometimes it seemed as though he was being stubborn and obtuse on purpose.
Once Amorim departed in January, Mainoo was swiftly restored to the team. Helped by Darren Fletcher and then Carrick instantly doing away with the infamous back-three system, Mainoo became one of the first names on the teamsheet in the second half of 2025-26; his 1,441 minutes played in the league between Amorim’s sacking and the end of the season was the third most among United’s outfielders.
The change in United’s shape was obviously a big factor in Mainoo’s increased prominence, but that only goes to further highlight how ill-judged Amorim’s attempted revolution (and his hiring in the first place) was. He had a squad that simply wasn’t equipped for his system, and his refusal to adapt meant he was effectively tying his own hands behind his back by leaving players like Mainoo on the sidelines.
It was clear to most what Mainoo offered once he was back in the team. Primarily, his ability to receive the ball under pressure and retain possession is unmatched in the United squad thanks to a combination of his excellent spatial awareness, composure on the ball, and technical quality.
Mainoo’s passing ability and quality in close quarters may not be immediately obvious to some because he doesn’t rank high in more eye-catching metrics, but underlying metrics demonstrate real value.
Firstly, his 87.1% pass completion rate under pressure put him 10th among the 44 nominal central/defensive midfielders to attempt at least 650 passes under pressure last term, evidence of his calm demeanour.
He moved up to eighth (out of 61) among central/defensive midfielders for final-third-entry completion rate (78.7%, minimum of 70), and then up to sixth for final-third-entries completed under high pressure (76.9%).
And finally, there were 81 central/defensive midfielders to attempt 50+ forward passes; for overall completion rate, Mainoo ranked 12th (75.4%), but for those played under high pressure, his completion rate of 71.0% put him fifth.
Mainoo’s reliability in possession ensures he adds significant value in build-up, whether United are looking to build gradually or quickly.
But it felt like something different had been added to his game on Sunday. There was an element of power that perhaps hadn’t been associated with him in the past.
In the immediate aftermath of Julio Enciso’s early breakaway chance, it was Mainoo who subsequently swept up possession, raced out wide while holding off Abdul Fatawu and found a pass up the line that helped spring United’s own counter (which almost led to Marcus Rashford scoring).
A few minutes later, Emersonn seemed to have got the wrong side of Mainoo in the centre circle, but the United man outmuscled the sizeable Brazilian, played a give-and-go with Matheus Cunha and then won a free-kick after using his body brilliantly to hold off Sasa Lukic.
He also played an integral role in the build-up to United’s penalty. Surrounded by three players, he dropped a shoulder and breezed past Marcelino Núñez while also bursting away from the other two Ipswich players. Then came the incisive pass for Cunha, who was subsequently tripped in the box.
Never did Mainoo look physically outmatched. Even in the 76th minute, after running the show for much of the game, he still had the capacity to hurl himself in front of Enciso to make an interception before tackling Fatawu as the Ghanaian latched onto the loose ball.
It was always the out-of-possession output, physical attributes and mobility that led to questions around Mainoo, but Sunday’s 5-2 win suggested either concerns were exaggerated or he’s put in real work to address certain weaknesses.
His 10 possession regains on Sunday was his best total in a Premier League game and his nine duel wins was his third most in a league match.
Obviously it takes more than one match to prove anything, but we also shouldn’t forget this is a player who put in a man-of-the-match display in an FA Cup final win over Manchester City a little over a month after he turned 19. He’s clearly a high-level operator.
There are certainly those who have noticed a change, though.
“[Mainoo’s] work without the ball has improved so much since Michael [Carrick]’s been in,” Harry Maguire told reporters after the Ipswich win. “Without the ball now, he’s becoming a real monster in there. He wins a lot of second balls; he wins a lot of duels; you won’t want to play against him in there and that’s the biggest compliment I can give to him from playing and watching him behind.”
It’s early days, of course, but Mainoo’s first start of the season probably couldn’t have gone much better on an individual level, particularly given how focused United’s summer transfers were on the midfield.
Three new players arrived, providing both potential new partners and competition for places. But Mainoo showed he’s still at the top of the pecking order, and he did so in a manner that will have surprised plenty.
If this is a sign of what’s to come from him, Mainoo will become the player United squads of the future are built around.
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