He is class though.
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Why is it unbelievable? He is a fantastic talent and plays with maturity way beyond his years. Barcelona played Pedri consistently at 17, Gavi at 16 and now Lamine Yamal at 16.
Mainoo is 18 and can handle himself physically really well. His calmness on the ball for a midfielder his age is rare, and he is quite press resistant. I'm not saying he should start every game, but with our current midfielders, we really should be looking to get him consistent minutes.
Yeah he may well be, but I’ve heard that about multiple Utd players over the last decade and virtually none of them ever properly made it to the first team and became legitimately world class. Rashford is the closest and even then I wouldn’t say he’s genuinely best in class. I reckon if ten Hag could swap him for any PL player he’d be able to pick several players he’d rather have.
True, but that's because we can only really judge them according their level of natural talent. The other factors that are equally as important are a lot harder for people on the outside (fans) to judge.
Please for the love of god let the kid regain fitness and slowly get integrated into the team. United fans pile on such high hopes from a new player or academy prospect . and then call them shite when they dont drop a 10/10 performance in every game.
Yeah that’s very true. One of the reasons I think Rashford has become such a key player has been his maturity and attitude as a youngster, which as you say is very difficult to see from the outside.
I suspect he’s seen Mount play a bit more than twice.
Yeah, more than likely. We as fans can only hope that the players whom we deem to be top talents also excel regarding the other part of the equation. It's why it is very easy to look silly in hindsight, despite not necessarily being incorrect when judging a player's natural talent level.
Exactly this. I think he looks ready at this level and we should play him more if he is fit to do so.
It’s fine if he isn’t best in class. The hope is that he adds to the team.
Yep, agreed. And by the way if you could look at any talented 18 year old academy kid and successfully predict which ones, in 3 years, would be playing for Man Utd and which ones would be playing for Carlisle Utd then you’d be on a million a year contract at a Prem club. I’ve seen guys like Ferguson, Wenger etc misjudge these things, quite badly on occasion before, it’s not easy!
Totally, I just think he’s spoken of here like he’s the second coming of the messiah. And maybe he’s just a very naughty boy!
Hasn’t started a single PL game - he’s young, I don’t think he ready but that doesn’t mean he won’t be at some point. Is he going to start over Case, Amrabat, Eriksen, Mount, Bruno, Mainoo after a good debut? I doubt he’ll even start above McT. Let him have a season of getting integrated, back to full fitness and without any high pressure expectations.
Greenwood was another, Garnacho.
Tbh the academy does keep producing. When you consider the total lack of investment in that area from the Glazers it’s fairly impressive.
Agreed. The occasional 18 year old kid in the academy may be absurdly talented compared to his peers. However, it's still a guessing game as to whether that player is also top of the class at the other side of the coin. The real difficulty comes when analysing the players in the academy who may only be 7/10 in terms of natural talent. Potentially, the other side of the coin could for them be the difference between Championship and Champions League.
To be honest he looks classy as hell to me. Impressed me every time I’ve watched him. At the same I don’t think we should expect him to be incredible. A good solid addition to the squad would be a nice starting point.
Lemons
In fairness to Garnacho, i think he's very good already, and he'll be brilliant if/when he can start performing over 90 minutes. Some of his cameos are really really good. But he definitely looks set to 'make it'.
Makes it worse, player of the year 2 out the 3 last years for Chelsea. Yeah what a shit player.
No, it doesn’t make it worse at all. It means he has seen enough to form his own opinion of a football player. You don’t have to watch him at all to learn that he was voted Chelsea Player of the Year.
This is the most kneejerk place in the universe though. Don’t honestly expect many rational responses to your post. People had written him off before he played, let alone after putting in anything other than a world class performance.
Anyway, looking forward to Mainoo being fit but he’s clearly going to need time and patience, hopefully something the manager affords him, because the fans sure won’t. As evidenced by the last two pages of this thread, where’s he’s been expected to come in and play like prime Robert Prosinecki from day one. If he was at Barca he’d probably be a balón d’or contender by now, don’t you know? But United….shit, inept, ruins players etc. The fact we regularly produce more players from our academy that go on to have PL careers, than any club in England, are just stupid facts that get in the way of a good old moan.
I'm trying to keep myself level-headed and realistic about our younger players. However, at the same time, I do feel like this is the season we could do with trying something new and giving game time to our youngsters. We need younger, hungry players to come through. Importantly, this is good for competition for places. Even if it a place on the bench and substitute appearances mainly, with a few starts here and there. Unless they obviously justify a starting position.
There is nothing ‘knee-jerk’ about having an opinion on a 24 year old PL player. To suggest so is ridiculous. People can make a decision, positive or negative even BEFORE Mount signs. You hear the rumours, and you can decide whether or not you are excited by this or not. It is simple. Whatever position you take, it is, without fecking saying - subject to change depending on how he actually does. That said, if we were linked to Tomas Soucek tomorrow, I don’t expect everyone to sit on the fence and say ‘I’ll wait until a couple years into his United career to decide how I feel about this’, nor is it relevant that he was West Ham’s best player 2 years ago in anyone’s assessment.
This lad could be the one glimmer of genuine excitement this season. He looked great in PS.
Fans get excited over local youth talent from the academy. The horror!
Him & Hannibal could rejuvenate our midfield
Yeah Mainoo looked like a baller in pre season. The calmness he has on the ball reminds me alittle about Carrick/Scholes. It looks like he always are one step ahead.
I actually think a midfield of Mainoo - Casemiro/Amrabat - Bruno/Mount would be great going forward.
It’s unheard of is what it is!
I think people need to cool their expectations of him so they don't meltdown when he's isn't prime Modric three games back.
It's been years, but can we finally dismantle this ridiculous strawman that is routinely used in these discussions? Yes, you know which one :-
"Yeah, yeah, it's fine talking all about this young player playing minutes in the first team and hyping him up, but as soon as he isn't playing brilliantly in every game you'll be criticising him."
It's not only a ridiculous sweeping generalisation of a fanbase's expectations, but even worse, it's simply inaccurate. Mainoo is hyped because he has a set of traits that are commonly linked to other starlets that have a higher probability of making it, but that hype isn't necessarily fanatical, just justified and measured aright. Fans aren't expecting blinding performances from these types of players from the get-go, they just want them to have generous quantity of minutes to develop character through better or worse games. Pressure is good. It's what elevates players. Don't be scared for them; be glad it challenges them.
I hope Mainoo returns, reintegrates and gets all the minutes an ambitious young player like him would desire to get.
"Yeah, yeah, it's fine talking all about this young player playing minutes in the first team and hyping him up, but as soon as he isn't playing brilliantly in every game you'll be criticising him."
It's not only a ridiculous sweeping generalisation of a fanbase's expectations, but even worse, it's simply inaccurate. Mainoo is hyped because he has a set of traits that are commonly linked to other starlets that have a higher probability of making it, but that hype isn't necessarily fanatical, just justified and measured aright. Fans aren't expecting blinding performances from these types of players from the get-go, they just want them to have generous quantity of minutes to develop character through better or worse games. Pressure is good. It's what elevates players. Don't be scared for them; be glad it challenges them.
I hope Mainoo returns, reintegrates and gets all the minutes an ambitious young player like him would desire to get.
I’m really looking forward to watching him. Hopefully he gets plenty of game time. Really curious as to where ETH wants to go with this team but we have some young players that could really change the way we play in the next few years.
Looking forward to watching this lad grow and hope hes given the time by the fanbase....
I hope he does well. Looks too much of a nice guy and won’t be surprised if he never reaches his potential because of injuries - just has that vibe.
100% This happens all the time.
No harm in being excited for an academy player coming into the full team, but realistically he is only going to make a few sub appearances and shouldn't be expected to transform anything!
I see no harm in being excited about what Mainoo can do. My expectations are high, but no, I don't expect him to be on the Balon d'Or short list any time soon.
Okay, I'm on board. Stockport Pedri here we go!
Mainoo, Hannibal and Gore just might be our own….
Modric is overrated and inconsistent, wouldn't want him to turn out like him. Only ever shows up in big games, who would want that?
People wrote him off before he signed. Despite being Chelsea’s player of the year twice in three seasons. That isn’t knee jerk, I agree. That’s just stupid. The same people took the performance of two games to decide that their opinion was validated and he was indeed shit. That is both stupid and knee jerk.
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