Considering how bad we are at the moment, throwing in a promising youngster (in a midfield position no less) is just setting him up for failure unless he is a Jude level of talent. Use him as a sub in games we are winning for now.
1.
"Unless he is a Jude level of talent".
That's hindsight speaking. In order for Jude to have the kind of accelerated development to even become the kind of player he is now he had to play competitive football earlier than Mainoo is playing now, and that includes being played in games that (and I quote) "is just setting him up for failure". That's the point. Bellingham's learning curve was aided by being played in games that had stakes. Stakes bring out the best in players.
2.
"Use him as a sub in games we are winning for now."
In my long experience of being on Redcafe, there's one thing I'm sure of, and it's that there is
never any good time for a talented young player to get minutes according to this forum. If we play him when there's stakes on the line, we fret at the possibility that playing in a losing team might crush him irreparably, but also, fans also don't want to play players when we're winning because (and this has been said on so many times in this place) it's too much pressure to put a young player on to see out a game, afterall, what happens if the opposition scores? It'll crush his confidence.
There's always a reason for fans to want to not play a young player. Always. If we only play him in games we are winning, and it's comfortable enough to bring him on, how many minutes do you suspect he's going to get in a season? How many? It's not going to be a lot, is it? How many games do
you personally think are going to be comfortably won given how we look? It can't be many, can it?
So, he either plays in challenging games (like Jude, like Pedri, like Gavi, like Yamel, like Fermin, etc) and gets important growth minutes in-game, or he waits, and waits, and waits for games where the fanbase deem comfortable enough to afford him then, and quite frankly, if you're waiting for that you're not going to find many