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Kobbie Mainoo England flag

2024-25 Performances


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5.4 Season Average Rating
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SAF would have taken him out of that England side immediately.

How so? Fergie had no sway whatsoever over the national team burden on his players.

Giggsy would do as he pleased, but that was fecking Wales.
 
How so? Fergie had no sway whatsoever over the national team burden on his players.

Giggsy would do as he pleased, but that was fecking Wales.

You might not recall well enough. But we had players dropping out all the time to to "knocks" which I assume is also the case for some of the England players not in the side today, even though they're likely fit. Club before country, not least when you're a central midfielder and we have no depth. It's mad.
 
You might not recall well enough. But we had players dropping out all the time to to "knocks" which I assume is also the case for some of the England players not in the side today, even though they're likely fit. Club before country, not least when you're a central midfielder and we have no depth. It's mad.

My memory is fine. Fergie lost his shit more than just a few times over the minutes played by his players in meaningless internationals
 
My memory is fine. Fergie lost his shit more than just a few times over the minutes played by his players in meaningless internationals

I can't be bothered to find the exact quote or pod/interview, but Neville talked about that fairly recently. They excused themselves from International duty plenty of times. And like I said before, I don't believe for a second that all the "knocks" unavailable players have are genuine.
 
I can't be bothered to find the exact quote or pod/interview, but Neville talked about that fairly recently. They excused themselves from International duty plenty of times. And like I said before, I don't believe for a second that all the "knocks" unavailable players have are genuine.

Gary Neville just likes to talk. Giggs repeatedly excused himself, but that's about the extent of it.

Fergie was consistently pissed off with United players being given too many minutes on the pitch during internationals. Like Rooney being involved right after returning from injuries. Like Ronaldo being in the olympics squad in 04. You'll find that the vast majority of our players were consistently available for their national teams during their career at Manchester United.

The setups are even more annoying these days, as national teams will easily insist that you have to travel just to be looked at by their own medical setup unless it's something obvious.
 
He’s at that stage now where he has had an amazing introduction into professional football but all the games and psychological load seem to be catching up with him. It’s at that time that decent managers would take him out of the firing line for a few weeks.

Problem is:
a) we don’t seem to have a decent manager
b) who the feck do we play instead?

I’m hoping that with Ugartes energy Eriksen may be able to play more games in the middle
 
He missed the start of last season injured.
Since he’s been in the team then. My point still stands, especially with no break in the summer.

His general lack of fitness or impact on the second half of games is a big concern for me.
 
I think he's burnt out and needs resting. Beyond farcical that we didn't feel the need to bring two midfielders in this summer. He cannot play every fecking game.
 
He didn’t take part in the US tour, and it’s been 1 game a week so far this season.

The burnout chat is being over exaggerated.
 
He didn’t take part in the US tour, and it’s been 1 game a week so far this season.

The burnout chat is being over exaggerated.
He just shouldn't be playing as much as he is at his age. It's not necessarily about immediate burnout but more about what this amount of football does to a footballer this early in his development.
 
He’s at that stage now where he has had an amazing introduction into professional football but all the games and psychological load seem to be catching up with him. It’s at that time that decent managers would take him out of the firing line for a few weeks.

Problem is:
a) we don’t seem to have a decent manager
b) who the feck do we play instead?

I’m hoping that with Ugartes energy Eriksen may be able to play more games in the middle
Ugarte, Casemiro and Bruno, limit the boy to cameos for a few weeks or even the whole month. Stabilize the team so that when he comes back it's an enjoyable experience not the chore it appears to be right now.
 
He didn’t take part in the US tour, and it’s been 1 game a week so far this season.

The burnout chat is being over exaggerated.
He barely got summer break and has been thrown straight back into the fire. It’s a question of how long that keeps up for and how many rests he gets in consideration of his age and peculiar summer that will determine how badly he’s being handled.
 
Ugarte, Casemiro and Bruno, limit the boy to cameos for a few weeks or even the whole month. Stabilize the team so that when he comes back it's an enjoyable experience not the chore it appears to be right now.
Stabilise the team by removing by far the most stable of the midfield three?

Don't be silly. Get Casemiro out the lineup.
 
Ugarte, Casemiro and Bruno, limit the boy to cameos for a few weeks or even the whole month. Stabilize the team so that when he comes back it's an enjoyable experience not the chore it appears to be right now.
Sounds awful. Who the hell will our defenders pass to? An Ugarte/Casemiro pivot would be horrific, especially against teams like Southampton (or, as we found out, Liverpool) who press intensively.

Our only replacement for Mainoo is Eriksen and he is quite clearly not up to the task any more.
 
He didn’t take part in the US tour, and it’s been 1 game a week so far this season.

The burnout chat is being over exaggerated.
He played an entire Euros campaign instead. He's 19. We're not Barcelona, we don't need to run young men and children into the ground.
 
Sounds awful. Who the hell will our defenders pass to? An Ugarte/Casemiro pivot would be horrific, especially against teams like Southampton (or, as we found out, Liverpool) who press intensively.

Our only replacement for Mainoo is Eriksen and he is quite clearly not up to the task any more.
Which begs the question of why signing actual central midfielders who can receive the ball to feet and play under pressure have never been a priority point under this manager. And it raises a very obvious answer.
 
I’ve noticed since the last few games in the Euros that he has developed his tracking back and pressing of the space so the interception stats make sense.

I like what England did with him sitting deep and allowed Rice to go box to box. It’ll allow him to get on the ball more. Hopefully we can see him next to Ugarte soon as I’d like them to build chemistry asap.
 
Southampton 0:3 Man Utd
Looks like he needs a rest, not surprised by that. He was decent in the second half though.
 
I don't quite understand the criticism. We didn't even need his creativity today and he did his job well today.
 
Thought he was fine today, probably doesn’t help he’s stuck next to Eriksen who basically running through treacle.
 
I don't quite understand the criticism. We didn't even need his creativity today and he did his job well today.

He got caught on the ball quite a few times and was behind it when they broke on us. Individually he's culpable to an extent but like always our ball progression was dogshite where he got the ball in terrible areas and we were set up with no midfield off the ball.

Everyone played better after our goal but that's to be expected and it was against an incredibly naive Southampton team. ETH got lucky.
 
He’s playing progressively worse week on week. He was really poor in the first half when the game was in the mix, as he was against Liverpool. Alongside an immobile Eriksen he just didn’t offer enough either defensively or with the ball. As others have pointed out in this thread, managing young players involves more peaks and dips and a good manager understands when to take a player out for a period
 
I think Southamptons tactics were to crowd him out and muscle him off the ball. And in that respect the ref didn’t give Kobbie any support because the first half they were just fouling him. He showed his quality throughout though and when Ugarte came on he was pressing them much higher and they couldn’t get out at all. This was also turning the ball over for more chances and led to our 3rd. Ugarte will unlock Mainoo’s true potential.
 
Mainoo was not poor FFS. But I do agree with the assessment by others here he needs a bit of rest. He’s fine now but we’ve got a grueling road ahead of us.
 
I think Southamptons tactics were to crowd him out and muscle him off the ball. And in that respect the ref didn’t give Kobbie any support because the first half they were just fouling him. He showed his quality throughout though and when Ugarte came on he was pressing them much higher and they couldn’t get out at all. This was also turning the ball over for more chances and led to our 3rd. Ugarte will unlock Mainoo’s true potential.

Yeah agree with this. Its also something Kobbie needs to be aware of and work on. Eriksen showed how a midfielder makes good decisions today. He passed at the right times and laid it off quickly in the right times. Kobbie was trying to keep the ball in positions when he should have released it quickly. Not every time he gets the ball he needs to try and wiggle out trouble. With better awareness he can just lay it off. Its an area that I think he can and likely will improve on. He grew into the game like the others though.
 
He’ll benefit with Ugarte next to him for sure, but he needs to start passing the ball faster, he’s been caught with the ball to often lately.
 
He needs to find out what specialist player he wants to become. He has attributes but lacks purpose in his game. Does he want to dictate the game? Be box to box? Be creative midfielder? Be a CDM? I can't pin on one quality that he is specialised today. But he is very young and can develop his own niche as he grows.
 
He needs to find out what specialist player he wants to become. He has attributes but lacks purpose in his game. Does he want to dictate the game? Be box to box? Be creative midfielder? Be a CDM? I can't pin on one quality that he is specialised today. But he is very young and can develop his own niche as he grows.
He will grow into an iniesta type midfielder in my opinion. Once we add the right pieces so he can go and play.
 
He needs to find out what specialist player he wants to become. He has attributes but lacks purpose in his game. Does he want to dictate the game? Be box to box? Be creative midfielder? Be a CDM? I can't pin on one quality that he is specialised today. But he is very young and can develop his own niche as he grows.
We need a midfield/team that will let him find that out to be honest. At the moment so much is expected of him, especially defensively with the way we're set up, that he's rarely given a chance to impose himself on the match.