Kobbie Mainoo image 37

Kobbie Mainoo England flag

2023-24 Performances

View full 2023-24 profile

6.2 Season Average Rating
Appearances
32
Goals
5
Assists
1
Yellow cards
4
Status
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NLunited said:
De Jong was great at 18, also a generational player. De Jong is better at progressive dribbling ( unstoppable at times) while Kobbie is good at dribbling with the ball in tight spaces.

I agree Kobbie is an 8. He can drop deep to help playing out the back and penetrate the opposition‘s box as we saw against Pool.
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Was he? I don’t think he’d made the first team at 18… or 19?
 
I don't know if it's already has been mentioned here but he reminds of Andrés Iniesta. Not very fast but world class ball carrier. Hope Mainoo will have a similar career.
 
Genuinely think he could be the difference for England in the euros. He's the mould of player they miss. In saying that I think they'd need Shaw back as well.
 
evil_geko said:
People saying he is not that fast, feck speed, modern football is only about speed, speed, speed. The game has lost all the flair and excitement, we need more of that back.
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Also just think it's fecking stupid to question a player's pace when he's shown the burst to close down spaces quite well as well as pull away from players on the ball. People act like he's Granit Xhaka or Casemiro lumbering around.

Mainoo could not get a single step quicker (even though he will through just maturing naturally) and he'd still be plenty quick enough for any midfield.
 
arnie_ni said:
Genuinely think he could be the difference for England in the euros. He's the mould of player they miss. In saying that I think they'd need Shaw back as well.
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Yeah, if he's taking the place of Henderson or Phillips, he'll be an upgrade. There's a young freshness in the team and he suits the style of play. There's plenty of experience with the likes of Walker, Shaw, Maguire, Rice and Kane
 
Stadjer said:
If de Jong is average at best than Mainoo is just plain bad at defending. We have seen Premier League defenders just run with the ball and leaving Mainoo in the dust. It made some worry about Mainoo his speed and others blamed him on the Premier League intensity and that Mainoo doesnt yet have the 'grown man strenght' that will come with age.

Xavi also didnt prefer Gavi over Frenkie de Jong. Xavi played Busquets at de Jong his position and Xavi was never going to play de Jong over Busquets. De Jong isnt a Roy Keane that will run everywhere and make hard slide tackles but he is good at positioning himself at the right place to do a good enough defensive job. De Jong has even played games as a central defender in a three at the back system.
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Xavi did prefer Gavi at the start of last season and he also played a fair bit this season before his serious injury. How else would he have had 10 La Liga starts by 23 November? His defensive stats are far superior to De Jong's and Barca have enough control/offensive qualities in CM. De Jong as a DM doesn't have the defensive awareness just like Pogba, doesn't track back enough which is the same accusation you lay onto Mainoo, and gets pushed around too easily. Mainoo at this age to my eyes is at a similar or close-enough level considering the dross around him. His whoscored defensive stats vs De Jong (give or take) is overall similar, and usually only gets out-run when he's fatigued which is a problem that we hope will improve as his body develops.

But let's just agree to disagree.
 
Was about to laugh at the Cleverley comparisons… until I realised he somehow has 13 (!) caps for England.
 
No United this weekend, but we all have a reason to watch England now.

Well until the team is announced and he isn’t starting.
 
May be an unpopular opinion because the majority think they're our best pair but I think he benefited from Casemiro missing the game. For the simple reason that, when Casemiro plays, he's the deep one, and not only does that make our play from the back worse due to his lack of composure and technical ability compared to Mainoo, it causes Mainoo to drift out of games, too. Against Liverpool, he was the deep one next to Scott and it made a massive difference.

I don't really rate Casemiro that high in general, but I get why he's a starter at our current level. I just think Mainoo should be the deeper one of the two. Casemiro likes bombing forwards anyway, so let him be the 8/10 hybrid whilst Mainoo dictates things for us.
 
Yagami said:
May be an unpopular opinion because the majority think they're our best pair but I think he benefited from Casemiro missing the game. For the simple reason that, when Casemiro plays, he's the deep one, and not only does that make our play from the back worse due to his lack of composure and technical ability compared to Mainoo, it causes Mainoo to drift out of games, too. Against Liverpool, he was the deep one next to Scott and it made a massive difference.

I don't really rate Casemiro that high in general, but I get why he's a starter at our current level. I just think Mainoo should be the deeper one of the two. Casemiro likes bombing forwards anyway, so let him be the 8/10 hybrid whilst Mainoo dictates things for us.
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Couldn't agree more. I personally would like to see Bruno, Mount and Mainoo as a three. I know it lacks areial threat and physicality which casemiro and Mctominay have. However, I feel it could really work, so long as we have two aerially dominant CBs.
 
mav_9me said:
Yeah. Weird one. Mod posted low effort post.

I posted it to Twitter here.

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Thank you. Looks like Klopp was impressed. Any manager would have been impressed, 18 year old playing against elite team, 2-3 players pressing him but he evaded the press with ease. Unreal press resistant and composure.
 
roonster09 said:
Thank you. Looks like Klopp was impressed. Any manager would have been impressed, 18 year old playing against elite team, 2-3 players pressing him but he evaded the press with ease. Unreal press resistant and composure.
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The 2nd best pressing team with their first choice front 6
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
Also just think it's fecking stupid to question a player's pace when he's shown the burst to close down spaces quite well as well as pull away from players on the ball. People act like he's Granit Xhaka or Casemiro lumbering around.

Mainoo could not get a single step quicker (even though he will through just maturing naturally) and he'd still be plenty quick enough for any midfield.
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Agreed on the bolded part.

Also, pace isn't even that big of a requirement in his role.

Are the likes of Gundogan, Thiago, Bellingham, Verratti, etc. known for their pace? I don't think so.
 
Just hope he has a good mentality. We’ve seen so many mega talents fluff things over the years. Anderson, Martial and Greenwood stand out as talents that looked absolutely immense when they joined. Anderson pinging perfect long passes to the flanks and physically imposing himself against much older players. Martial was just pure class when he joined, unreal talent. Greenwood we all knew had everything to be one of the best. Two of them faced injuries but also lacked the application. The third turned out to be a complete shitbag.

Now with all this England attention coming Mainoo’s way, he / we have to ensure that he develops or maintains the ethic of a top professional..
 
Sniper007 said:
I understand the sentiment about him being young and needing to be careful with him, but I’m not sure about him being raw and unpolished. Of course he has room to grow, but the brutal facts are he is already arguably our best midfielder right now ahead of our most experienced players who are 30+. He seems the most composed and intelligent player in most of our matches.
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I think looking good in the Manchester United midfield comparative to his seniors is different animal.

Whatever we say about Southgate, his stint has brought more ‘success’ (I use the term somewhat loosely) and on-field dominance than most England coaches in my lifetime. The role he has to play to fit in with Bellingham and Rice is completely different, and I wouldn’t begrudge him a bad performance where he doesn’t need to be bold and show his personality because those two will do all of that and more…potentially putting him in his place. Whereas at United, his seniors seem happy for him to do everyone’s job!

At United he’s performed admirably and clearly come out and said if you guys aren’t going to do it, then I am, but I’m not convinced that it is sustainable and think he’ll really benefit from a defined system/style of play built around his obvious strengths.

It’s all too early to say, the main thing is he just needs to go out there and carry on proving he deserves the backing he’s getting from the wider football community.
 
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