[Onerealunited]

Mainoo in the CM has 3 wins on the bounce in the league now...his body will be under a lot of strain for an 18 year old but it's such valuable experience.

Play the Mainoo, Garnacho, Hojlund trio as much as possible to make this season feel more worthwhile simple down to the amount of games they will have accumulated.

100% Agree with this and I would also add to them Dalot as RB. He has improved a lot. Given the amount of spots we need improvement on we might as well give him all the resources to develop him as a valuable part of the "philisophy" ETH is to build - hopefully we'll all see that soon

 

[KjaAnd]

I thought he played well considering Villa have superior athletes centrally. Our big issue is that we can't seem to match teams like Villa physically and athletically which gives those teams a advantage in the game hence getting over-run centrally becomes a bigger worry than it should be. I think it's very easy to see where the improvement can come in that regard and which players need to be replaced to see that improvement.

This. It was painful to watch Mainoo and Casemiro trying to track their runners in midfield today. We need to sign an athletic DM to play next to Mainoo.

 

[Lu Tze]

Needs a physical monster of a DM next to him which Cas no longer is, but he's very likely to be the long term future of our CM

 

[Spark]

Been a fair few games for him now and he’s been impressively consistent. Today he struggled a bit with tracking his man, but even at my most conservative I’d rate him 7/10. Some moments of excellence, which are quickly becoming standard.

Becoming clichéd but he has genuinely saved the club spending a fortune on a transfer that could easily still be shite.

 

[OverratedOpinion]

I thought he was often outnumbered today and so he couldn't have a great performance based on quality so he almost forced a good performance based purely on hard work.

Not stunning by any means but just kept pushing and pushing with no intimidation.

Proper football player.

 

[criticalanalysis]

His athleticism is transition is an issue because of the large areas needed to cover but the bigger problem is how the space was caused in the first place.

We have 5 players pressing in the Villa half (Rashford, Hojlund, Garnach, Bruno and Mainoo) and then a chasm of space between them and Casemiro in front of the defence. Everytime Villa managed to evade our press, they had the whole pitch to run into. Amateur stuff at times.

Either the whole team (i.e defence) pushes up to reduce that space or stop with the suicidal initial press and know when to defend from a more conservative line. All on ETH.

 

[SungSam7]

His lack of pace is worrying, too many times a runner from CM for Villa got away from him.

I'm sure we should bave coaches that should train him to make up for his lack of pace. It's not all about how fast you run, Casemiro managed to win plenty without being the fastest on the pitch.

In fact, the Madrid midfield wasn't exactly the fastest and did just fine.

Down to coaches here.

 

[Fortitude]

I'm sure we should bave coaches that should train him to make up for his lack of pace. It's not all about how fast you run, Casemiro managed to win plenty without being the fastest on the pitch.

In fact, the Madrid midfield wasn't exactly the fastest and did just fine.

Down to coaches here.

The Madrid midfield also had quintessential structure, like dream stuff where each man knew and did exactly what was needed to make life easier for the other, and then, when they got the ball back, they’d keep it for an age, enabling large pockets of recovery… we’re so far away from that it’s not even funny. Modric at point is also a permanent distraction by himself given how much effort it then took the opposition to contain him.

Mainoo is likely to get the dream midfield unit with England before he gets it here - it used to always be the other way round for United players, who would go off to England duty to play in weaker, less cohesive units. We definitely need to raise our bar in midfield and get it back up to par with what the best sides have.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Difficult game for him. Seemed to make the right decisions when he got the ball instead of panicking like the others were. But our midfield struggled to get any foothold in terms of control and was also opened up too often in between the lines.

 

[JJ12]

I don't think it was his best game but thought he had a few good moments. Ball retention and passing was pretty good. His footwork to keep the move alive for the winner was nice.

I think we saw the tactics from earlier in the season rear it's ugly head again which exposed Casemiro, that needs to be tweaked especially on the road against a top 6 team.

 

[DWelbz19]

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[KM]

On the ball he's excellent but paired with an aging Casemiro, he'd sometimes look defensively weak. I'd love for us to sign a super physical number 6 this summer and pair him with Mainoo;

 

[Wrecking ralf]

On the ball he's excellent but paired with an aging Casemiro, he'd sometimes look defensively weak. I'd love for us to sign a super physical number 6 this summer and pair him with Mainoo;

The question is, who is that perfect physical partner for him?

 

[The Purley King]

The question is, who is that perfect physical partner for him?

Onana from Everton would be good I think

 

[OmarUnited4ever]

Baller.

 

[Raven]

He's different gravy.

 

[edgecutter]

Calm and composed. What a talent

 

[roonster09]

Our only player in squad who can keep possession when pressed. If he plays for a team that is possession dominant, he will be unreal

 

[Red Rash]

Hojlund will probably get MOTM for the goals but I think Mainoo was comfortably the best player. The only player in our team who showed any kind of composure.

 

[Resonance]

Class. Don’t blame him if he wants to leave and play with players who don’t shit the bed the ball at their feet.

 

[Dempsey19]

The only player that doesn't treat the ball as If it's on fire. He's cool as a breeze.

 

[Oranges038]

Best Utd player on the pitch.

 

[Bobski]

Take him out of that silly advanced role, get him on the ball constantly, he brings qualities and composure that should be the building blocks of the team.

Best game for the club I think.

 

[BuzzKillington]

He has an amazing awareness of what’s around him and where his escape routes are when he’s receiving the ball under pressure. Love the lad.

 

[Castia]

This guy has a massive future. Like he can be one of the top midfielders in Europe he should not be able to control games at his current age

 

[redshaw]

Main man Mainoo

 

[bosnian_red]

Love this kid. Nobody else in the team who I trust on the ball like him to keep possession under pressure. Him and Martinez. Just a quality player already. Southgate is an idiot if he doesn't fast track him to play next to Rice and Bellingham

 

[Dobba]

Rolls Royce.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

We desperate need to surround him with upgraded midfielders (DM and AM). At the moment it’s always him and two others who let the game whizz past them.

 

[Cutch]

Plays like he's the old experienced head more than Casemiro and Bruno do. It's actually ridiculous.

Some outstandingly slick bits of play today.

 

[Idxomer]

The only player I can stand watching on the ball in this team.

 

[Telsim]

Our only player in squad who can keep possession when pressed. If he plays for a team that is possession dominant, he will be unreal

This is exactly what I thought as well. Hope we get rid Ten Hag and get a manager that plays proper possession football. He could be a central piece then.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Quality. He's close control is something else

 

[harms]

So smooth!

 

[lex talionis]

Outrageously outstanding again. Did anyone here ever watch Keane or Scholes when they were 18?

 

[DevTheRed]

Our most press resistant player by an absolute mile. We’ve got a star on our hands.

 

[Red_Aaron]

Seemingly immune to pressure
His touch and close control are as good as any renowned tricky winger in the game
What a gem we have here

 

[Ekeke]

Hojlund will rightly be motm because of his 2 goals that earned the points, but other than those 2 moments Mainoo was our best player. The amount of times he took the ball in tight spaces and under pressure, with composure, a great touch and the ability to wriggle away and generate passing moves was fantastic. Also made a great tackle that was somehow given as a foul.

The kiss curse of it is that while he looks a tier above any other midfielder we have currently, in terms of current form (Casemiro, Eriksen, etc) and ability (McTom) he's also having a tougher job because he doesnt have someone playing well in midfield next to him. So we could have had more of the ball today and you do look at midfield as one area that we could have been more dominant but Mainoo certainly did his part and the part he did was outstanding. Still you can see that he has even more in him in terms of stamping his authority on the game not just with his fancy feet, but he has the ability to make more passes and keep us on top of games and I'm sure that will come with age and maturity as you cant expect it all within 20 games and at 18 years old. Thats just where he can improve on his already fantastic contribution.

 

[AltiUn]

His best game for us by a mile, felt like he got 0 help from Casemiro / McTominay all game.

 

[Someone]

Weird that he's our most composed player. Never panics. Really love the guy.