[OldTrevil]

This kid has impressed me every time I've seen him play. Looks to have all the tools to turn into a proper baller

 

[Idxomer]

No plans for him to go on loan according to the Athletic.

Ten Hag is a huge fan and wanted to play him more last season but the injury stopped him.

 

[flameinthesun]

No plans for him to go on loan according to the Athletic.

Ten Hag is a huge fan and wanted to play him more last season but the injury stopped him.

He's a very interesting player, I actually do see the sightly less skillful pogba comparison with him. Guess the question is whether he'll adapt to having the confidence and consistency to show his talent at CM in a proper competitive league game for example and build up the trust to be a proper rotation option. So far the signs are positive though.

 

[Rake]

Good news. It is always exciting to have a youngster coming through the ranks. Given that most other youngster have failed to impress EtH, he must be doing a lot of things right.

 

[Borys]

No plans for him to go on loan according to the Athletic.

Ten Hag is a huge fan and wanted to play him more last season but the injury stopped him.

I will believe this when I see him getting more minutes. ETH has not shown much wilingness to rotate at all so far.

 

[SAF is the GOAT]

Great analysis on him

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[AnotherLondonManc]

Really hope he makes it as a deputy to Mount over the coming seasons. Got bags of potential, this lad.

Would love to see a good loan for him this year

 

[arthurka]

Hope he gets minutes.

 

[Aint gota Kalou]

Is he likely to end up as the deepest midfielder? I think he's played there whenever he's been in the first team?

 

[AnotherLondonManc]

Is he likely to end up as the deepest midfielder? I think he's played there whenever he's been in the first team?

I think that's more due to the coverage needed at the time. He's capable playing deeper, but doesn't appear to have the defensive output to be a solo pivot.

Looks to be more of the box to box type

 

[city-puma]

Great analysis on him

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I guess a lot of us believe this is his breakthrough season coming up.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Great analysis on him

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Is that a Twitter thread? Thanks to the genius new owner Twitter is so broken you can’t read threads without having an account.

 

[bosnian_red]

He's quality. Composed on the ball, very good technique, only recently turned 18 I think but is a fecking unit physically. And unlike Pogba before who had a similar frame, I do think he's a natural in those deeper positions. Learning off Casemiro too... I'm excited for him. Still think he's a while away from having a meaningful role, but he'll be part of the group in the mean time.

 

[lex talionis]

What a boy. What a man.

 

[RuudTom83]

He has that ability to look like he is just gliding around the pitch...very nice style to his play.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

I really hope we fast track his place in the first team. He’s got that special composure, class and intelligence.

 

[Abraxas]

Not a talent we pull out of the bag very often. A young midfielder with control and poise that's also built. Reminds me of the talents you see more out of French football.

We're quite good at producing attacking talents from the academy or scrawny midfield types that are unlikely to be able to perform at PL level and get a lot of love before departing to lower levels.

Really promising but a long way to go. Needs to get some minutes at the right times.

 

[ShinjiNinja26]

This kids defo good something about him. Looks like he’s bulked up over the summer as well, seeing him in person today I thought he looked quite big compared to a lot of the other players.

 

[bosnian_red]

Think if we keep him as the 6th midfielder of the group (so Bruno, casemiro, mount, Eriksen, McTominay and Kobbie) then that's a pretty good mix where we can cover Bruno and Mount well, McTominay can come in for casemiro and Mainoo can get his added minutes throughout the season to help him develop. Any more midfielders and he'd be blocked IMO.

 

[RedRonaldo]

Really hope we could play him more this season. He looks very talented and could be future star player for us.

 

[dutchred]

Think if we keep him as the 6th midfielder of the group (so Bruno, casemiro, mount, Eriksen, McTominay and Kobbie) then that's a pretty good mix where we can cover Bruno and Mount well, McTominay can come in for casemiro and Mainoo can get his added minutes throughout the season to help him develop. Any more midfielders and he'd be blocked IMO.

Mc Tominay cannot cover for Casemiro, He's lost in that position. We need to get rid of Mac and get a cover for Casemiro.Pay the price for Romeo Lavia and let him learn from Casemiro

 

[RedCurry]

He’s got the ability to become a top DM. Would learn a lot more working day-to-day with Casemiro than on loan. I hope we can find space for him in the squad.

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

Think if we keep him as the 6th midfielder of the group (so Bruno, casemiro, mount, Eriksen, McTominay and Kobbie) then that's a pretty good mix where we can cover Bruno and Mount well, McTominay can come in for casemiro and Mainoo can get his added minutes throughout the season to help him develop. Any more midfielders and he'd be blocked IMO.

You can't in good conscious actually think McTominay provides Casemiro cover. If it came down to it I'd rather Mainoo have to do that in a big match over Scott shitting himself on the ball and hiding from it.

In reality we need to buy true cover and sell McTominay. Case, Bruno, Mount, Eriksen, (Lavia/Amrabat), Mainoo should be the unit for this year and would be an excellent mix with good technicality all around capable of playing how we want.

 

[M16Red]

Couple of times players ran off him, in the EPL that would be punished. But other than that very very calm on the ball.

 

[bosnian_red]

Mc Tominay cannot cover for Casemiro, He's lost in that position. We need to get rid of Mac and get a cover for Casemiro.Pay the price for Romeo Lavia and let him learn from Casemiro

You can't in good conscious actually think McTominay provides Casemiro cover. If it came down to it I'd rather Mainoo have to do that in a big match over Scott shitting himself on the ball and hiding from it.

In reality we need to buy true cover and sell McTominay. Case, Bruno, Mount, Eriksen, (Lavia/Amrabat), Mainoo should be the unit for this year and would be an excellent mix with good technicality all around capable of playing how we want.

Ideally, yeah we'd replace McTominay. We don't have the budget for it though. And the problem with signing someone for that role assuming we'd get a fair chunk for Mctom is that you then hurt Mainoos future prospects, which depends on what timeline the club have in mind for him. Casemiro has probably 3 more years as a starter at a high level before he's phased out into being a squad player. And if the management think Mainoo can become that player to replace him, then it makes sense to just grow him into the role.

Mctominay isn't a natural DM but has shown countless times that he can do a job in big games. He plays it in a different way, but he has without a doubt had enough good games as a ball winner where it's fine if he's kept on in a backup role until we have the budget to address it more. I get it, everyone hates mctominay... But he did a good job at the start of last season and in previous seasons had enough good games where being a backup is *fine*. It's better than nothing. Not only is Casemiro the only DM in our squad but he is a physical and aerial presence. McTominay is great in that aspect, his positioning isn't good which is his issue but he sticks to the task and can do a job the few times we need to rotate Casemiro.

 

[Raven]

Wasn't able to catch this today unfortunately, due to work but delighted that he impressed again. I have really high hopes for this lad.

 

[IrishRedDevil]

Tidy looking player.

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

Ideally, yeah we'd replace McTominay. We don't have the budget for it though. And the problem with signing someone for that role assuming we'd get a fair chunk for Mctom is that you then hurt Mainoos future prospects, which depends on what timeline the club have in mind for him. Casemiro has probably 3 more years as a starter at a high level before he's phased out into being a squad player. And if the management think Mainoo can become that player to replace him, then it makes sense to just grow him into the role.

Mctominay isn't a natural DM but has shown countless times that he can do a job in big games. He plays it in a different way, but he has without a doubt had enough good games as a ball winner where it's fine if he's kept on in a backup role until we have the budget to address it more. I get it, everyone hates mctominay... But he did a good job at the start of last season and in previous seasons had enough good games where being a backup is *fine*. It's better than nothing. Not only is Casemiro the only DM in our squad but he is a physical and aerial presence. McTominay is great in that aspect, his positioning isn't good which is his issue but he sticks to the task and can do a job the few times we need to rotate Casemiro.

You're referencing McTominays performances but pretty much all of the "good" ones came under Ole with a completely different team structure, set up, and instructions. We just bought Mount with the intention of playing with him and Bruno in the half spaces and a lone DM covering behind them as we press ultra high. We'll be exposed relentlessly if Mctom is the guy filling in that role, as his positioning is largely diabolical especially as a lone DM asked to shield and he's a pretty brutal distributor as well. Simply put it's a tougher job now than it was when we relied on Scott back in the Ole days. At that time we could just ask him and Fred to provide a bunch of physicality and energy while mainly being a countering side.

As far as "hurting Mainoos prospects", if he's as good as we think he might be then he'll break through either way. But not buying an actual back up DM that fits how we see the position because we have an 18 year old academy prospect there is pure ignorance. Case is on the wrong side of 30 and our record without him last season is as good of evidence as any that we can't afford to go into this year with 0 actual cover for arguably our most important player

 

[horsechoker]

Needs to bulk up

 

[AlexUTD]

And bonus he do not hide from the ball like Mctominay does.

 

[bosnian_red]

You're referencing McTominays performances but pretty much all of the "good" ones came under Ole with a completely different team structure, set up, and instructions. We just bought Mount with the intention of playing with him and Bruno in the half spaces and a lone DM covering behind them as we press ultra high. We'll be exposed relentlessly if Mctom is the guy filling in that role, as his positioning is largely diabolical especially as a lone DM asked to shield and he's a pretty brutal distributor as well. Simply put it's a tougher job now than it was when we relied on Scott back in the Ole days. At that time we could just ask him and Fred to provide a bunch of physicality and energy while mainly being a countering side.

As far as "hurting Mainoos prospects", if he's as good as we think he might be then he'll break through either way. But not buying an actual back up DM that fits how we see the position because we have an 18 year old academy prospect there is pure ignorance. Case is on the wrong side of 30 and our record without him last season is as good of evidence as any that we can't afford to go into this year with 0 actual cover for arguably our most important player

McTominay and Eriksen actually did quite well last season. Which is my point. They aren't the starting pair, they are the backup pairing and it's not a big deal if we go into the season with them as the backup pairing in case of injuries in our midfield. Our record without him wasn't even that bad. First 2 games were obviously just a different scenario all together, but since then, in games where he didn't start we had:

• 7 wins, 1 draw, 3 losses in the league
• 2 wins in the FA cup
• 1 win in Europa League
• 2 wins in the league cup

So we are looking at 12 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses since he was signed in the games he didn't play in all comps. Very clearly, it's not as big a deal as people think. He's of course our most important player, I'm not disputing that, but the point is that we have "decent" cover already, and you are unlikely to get anything amazing cover for a player who will play whenever fit and not suspended with little chance of benching him. It's like buying Van de Beek to be cover for Bruno. It's pointless. Yes performance levels drop... that is inevitable when a key player is out. But he won't be on the bench often, and a McTominay and Eriksen pairing is pretty decent, decent enough to cover.

Ten Hag has also shown that he's extremely adaptable to what he has or doesn't have in a particular moment. He won't use the same system with Casemiro as he would if Casemiro is out. Just like he used one system with Frenkie at Ajax and another when he was sold. Just like we actually did pretty OK and adapted to even Rashford being out whenever he didn't play last season.

Ideally, yeah we'd sell McTominay and replace him. But that's a hard sell to a good player to bring him in on the basis of being a Casemiro backup/rotation with Mount (along with change of system) as their other position. And good players aren't cheap. And if we are signing someone young like Lavia... well we have Mainoo who is 1 year younger. I'd love to sign Lavia. But it's pretty far down the priority list and not a big deal if we don't address that this season.

 

[In Rainbows]

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[Stack]

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Its just sideways and back passing, its Tom Cleverly!!

 

[Jeppers7]

You can see a quality player in about 30 seconds. Mainoo is quality.

 

[Stack]

You can see a quality player in about 30 seconds. Mainoo is quality.

He just looks like he fits, so much composure and balance. Im lookingmforward to every game he gets to play, think we have a real gem here.

 

[city-puma]

Everywhere his height is listed as 175cm, but he looks as tall as wan bissaka, no?

 

[Red00012]

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Well that was a rubbish clip

 

[Jeppers7]

He just looks like he fits, so much composure and balance. Im lookingmforward to every game he gets to play, think we have a real gem here.

Yep. That’s when you know a player has the potential to be a top quality first team player rather than a trier. Doesn’t always work out but I’d be shocked if Mainoo doesn’t have a very good career (at united)

 

[horsechoker]

I hope he can get a start in the carabao cup.

If we can have more matches wrapped up by 70 minutes then let's hope ten Hag gives more chances to youth like KM.

 

[AjaxCunian]

I hope he can get a start in the carabao cup.

If we can have more matches wrapped up by 70 minutes then let's hope ten Hag gives more chances to youth like KM.

@KM You're name is taken on this forum. Unless..??