Kobbie Mainoo was back at the MetLife Stadium two years on from his breakthrough performance. He may have achieved another breakthrough against West Ham.
Samuel joined the Manchester Evening News in 2014 and is the Chief Manchester United writer. He has broken exclusives on Jose Mourinho’s appointment, the re-signing of Cristiano Ronaldo, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s sacking, the club’s interest in Ralf Rangnick and Erik ten Hag, as well as numerous other transfers and team news. He has represented the MEN on the BBC, Sky News, Sky Sports News, TalkSport, Radio 5 Live, CNN and various other media outlets worldwide.
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Mainoo started in New Jersey
Ruben Amorim has been on Kobbie Mainoo’s case to increase his “rhythm and pace”. Mainoo was quick to intercept Alphonse Areola’s pass to assist Bruno Fernandes.
Fernandes caressed the ball as nonchalantly as David Beckham to put United 2-0 up against West Ham. He could have purely milked the acclaim yet made a beeline for Mainoo.
This was the second time Mainoo walked off the MetLife Stadium pitch to murmurs of approval. As an 18-year-old two years ago, he outshone an Arsenal midfield of Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard. Erik ten Hag did not attend a post-match press conference but paused in the mixed zone to wax lyrical about Mainoo to us journalists.
It was apparent that Ten Hag was preparing Mainoo not for the first team squad but the first team. Cruelly, 80 seconds into the friendly with Real Madrid in Houston the following week, Casemiro fouled Rodrygo, who collided into Mainoo’s ankle and he was sidelined for four months.
Back in the United States for his second pre-season tour, Mainoo’s challenge is to regain his place rather than gain it. It augurs well that Amorim not only picked him from the start against West Ham but played Mainoo in midfield, his natural habitat.
Mainoo has occupied three different roles in Amorim’s 3-4-2-1 system but it is in his and the team’s interests that he returns to midfield. United have a surfeit of possible No.10s – Matheus Cunha, Bruno Fernandes, Bryan Mbeumo, Amad, Mason Mount, Joshua Zirkzee. They have a shortage of out-and-out central midfielders and Mainoo is one of four.
“I liked Kobbie Mainoo’s game,” Amorim enthused at the MetLife. That was unprompted. He was especially pleased with how Mainoo and the domineering Manuel Ugarte upped the intensity after the drab draw with Leeds United seven days earlier. Both started on the bench in Sweden.
Amorim lamented “the lack of pace” in midfield against Leeds. He picked Fernandes and Casemiro, players with a combined age of 63. That rotational team in Stockholm seemed to be solely about fitness. In New Jersey, United’s starting XI could feasibly line up against Arsenal at Old Trafford on August 17.
“I spoke about that against Leeds because I felt like everybody in the midfield, the pace was not there,” Amorim explained. “Today it was there. Manuel and Kobbie did that job.”
“I like the mentality of us today,” Matthijs de Ligt added. “High pressing, a lot of intensity.” Mainoo and Ugarte underpinned that.
Fernandes thanks Mainoo
Of the outfield players, Mainoo was maybe the least assured of keeping his place. Bryan Mbeumo could muscle his way in, though he will not play until the third tour match against Everton in Atlanta on Sunday. United only have one more friendly – at home to Fiorentina on August 9 – before Arsenal board their train to Manchester Piccadilly.
2024-25 was not a season teeming with highlights for Mainoo but he excelled at Arsenal in the spirited FA Cup third round triumph. Arsenal will likely have Rice and Rodri’s heir, Martin Zubimendi, to pit against United’s midfield axis.
Amorim leaned on Casemiro in the final months of last season, predominantly in the Europa League. Mainoo and Ugarte are better equipped to compete with Rice, Zubimendi and Fernandes’ opposite number, Martin Odegaard.
Mainoo was memorably impressive against Arsenal in New Jersey
It has gone quiet on the new contract front for Mainoo. He last scrawled his signature on United papers in February 2023 when he was still a teenager and had made two appearances. The deal was highly incentivised but his profile has expanded vastly since, so much so that Nike made a song-and-dance about his renewal last year, arranging for Mainoo to play in a five-a-side game at Venice Beach. United have to remunerate him.
As much of a wrench as it would be for members of the academy to see Alejandro Garnacho depart after five years, Garnacho hails from Madrid, not Manchester. His arrogance was so apparent in the academy that it was inevitable he would not be a one-club man and one day angle for a return to the land of his birth.
It is different with Mainoo. He is a Mancunian and a boyhood United fan. The era of the one-club is in danger of ending and United is the club that has to rail against that.
Mainoo is a talent to cherish
It is not pure sentiment to safeguard Mainoo’s future. He was integral to United’s FA Youth Cup and FA Cup successes, two of their highlights this decade. His winner at Wembley is one of the great Cup final goals. Mainoo left Wembley that day looking like a schoolboy on a field trip, with his shirt tucked out and a bucket hat resting on his noggin.
He didn’t stand still. Weeks later, Mainoo transformed England’s midfield in their run to the European Championship final. He would enhance most midfields.
Some supporters will be nervous about Mainoo’s sellable asset status. Midfield is also an area where United want to strengthen, once they have made room. Selling Mainoo is a prospect they cannot entertain and, as insignificant as pre-season matches are, Mainoo’s selection against West Ham was somewhat significant.
Whenever Mainoo started in the second half of last season, it was in domestic matches between European ties. Amorim is evidently willing to compromise now, bringing Mainoo back into the midfield fold, and there is not as much noise around him as there was with Scott McTominay last year. Fulham had submitted two offers for McTominay by late July 2024.
Two years ago, Mainoo’s sudden prominence made United receptive to selling McTominay. The plans changed when Rodrygo ploughed into Mainoo’s ankle. Hopefully, he avoids such misfortune in Chicago.
Then he can continue to perfect his rhythm.