Remember Kobbie Mainoo? The lad from Stockport heralded as Manchester United’s new midfield general? A player likened at 19 to Zinedine Zidane by Paul Scholes and whose 2024 FA Cup final winner toppled the noisy neighbours from across town when he ghosted into Manchester City’s area before a silky smooth touch and finish past Ederson?
Now, at a club of serial false dawns and zero title challenges since Sir Alex Ferguson retired 12 years ago, Mainoo is at a career crossroads. As Ruben Amorim becomes the latest manager to try to build United a shiny new world, Mainoo is a mere substitute. The Portuguese has no place for him in his 3-4-3 formation after a damning assessment that Mainoo lacks legs for the engine room or the pace to operate as one of the two 10s.
“Very, very, very confident,” Brighton’s head coach said of his feelings on whether Baleba would stay. “I didn’t see any change in him. He only changed his hair; that was the only change he made in the last two weeks. Overall, he seems to be in a really good place. He’s enjoying it with his teammates. He’s enjoying being a Brighton player. He’s very grateful to have the progress he made in the last season.”
Amorim may turn to alternative options including his former Sporting captain Morten Hjulmand. But the strategy of his first summer window in charge has been questionable. To land two No 10s, a No 9, and no “pace in midfield” as Amorim tries to revamp United screams of lopsided thinking before Arsenal’s arrival for Sunday’s curtain-raiser. Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo are the new playmakers, and Benjamin Sesko the centre-forward. Yet how the centre of the Portuguese’s team fares against title-contending visitors will provide a barometer of how crucial the market’s closing days are for the Amorim-Jim Ratcliffe project.
To splurge £62.5m on prising Cunha from Wolves, £71m on Mbeumo from Brentford and £73.7m on Sesko from RB Leipzig for a total £207.2m outlay but still leave the heart of the side lacking as 1 September nears seems portentous. Amorim, his director of football, Jason Wilcox, the chief executive, Omar Berrada, and their boss, Ratcliffe, may hide behind the horse-trading that can be chasing players’ signatures. But all rivals face the same wheeling-dealing challenge, and not all have the financial muscle that can help lure recruits with lucrative salaries as United do.
More damning is how midfield has been a glaring issue for a relative age. Basically since last Christmas when Amorim decided Mainoo was not able to hustle up and down the pitch; an intriguing assessment for a then teenager previously etched on to the team sheet under Erik ten Hag and who started England’s Euro 2024 final defeat by Spain.
Last term two separate muscle injuries ruled Mainoo out for 83 days. The first, from 17 October to 11 November, came in the period when Amorim was appointed to replace Ten Hag; the second (10 February-7 April) came with Mainoo an established bench-warmer.
Mainoo then had to watch an ageing and paceless Casemiro line up ahead of him in May’s 1-0 Europa League final defeat by Tottenham, the latest of the stark notices from Amorim that began when he tried rejigging Mainoo’s position over the winter.
January’s 2-0 Europa League group game win at FCSB featured him as one of the 10s (alongside Christian Eriksen). Mainoo scored but the following week at Crystal Palace he was moved to a false 9 berth. United lost 2-0 and Amorim hooked him after 70 minutes for Rasmus Højlund. Five days later, back as a 10 for the 2-1 Cup victory over Leicester, he lasted 64 minutes.
Next came the second injury, new contract talks stalling (Mainoo wants his £52,000-a-week terms upped to about £180,000, whereas United’s offer is nearer £100,000), the club being open to offers for him and only four starts after he returned to fitness for United’s closing 12 matches, none in Amorim’s prioritised competition, the Europa League.
Now with Fernandes and Manuel Ugarte ahead of him for Amorim’s two midfield spots (plus Casemiro maybe, too), and Cunha/Mbeumo beginning as the preferred 10 axis, Mainoo has what may be an unwinnable fight to regain a berth in the XI.
On Friday Amorim said of Sesko: “First of all, physically he’s ready. That is a big component in our league.” How Mainoo must wish the head coach viewed him the same.
