Kobbie Mainoo image 37

Kobbie Mainoo England flag

2025-26 Performances

View full 2025-26 profile

5.5 Season Average Rating
Appearances
22
Goals
0
Assists
3
Yellow cards
1
Passing far better, but Casemiro is still the biggest difference maker with his positioning.
 
Something was off about our midfield setup today because Fulham sliced through it like butter. But when he actually had to engage in duels and get on the ball, I thought Mainoo did very well.
 
His best game of the last 3. His body control is splendid, very hard to get off the ball. His ability to receive the ball in tight situations and send a proper pass is invaluable.
 
Mixed from me. When Casemiro got off we lost the midfield completely and he gave away the ball too much in the last 20.

We need to strengthen when Casemiro leaves and Mainoo needs to get minutes and develop to keep up
 
I feel like his diagonals are getting better. I’m just hoping at some point in the next year or two he just evolves and unlocks mid and long range passing quality to his game
 
Good performance, clearly still has aspects of his game to develop shame he never had the chance to do this pver the last year. Still find it incredible how so many on here were desperate to denigrate him
 
I thought he was quite meh today, a lot of poor passes that gave away possession in some quite dangerous areas. His effort level is much higher now though which is great to see.

Casemiro is quite clearly like 80% of our midfield. And we probably should buy two starters in the summer.
 
Loved his passing today, took risks, switched play many times, attempted through balls few times, tackled and intercepted and blocked, he did everything today to high level.
 
ValenciasDrilledCrosses said:
Something was off about our midfield setup today because Fulham sliced through it like butter. But when he actually had to engage in duels and get on the ball, I thought Mainoo did very well.
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Casemiro and the defence were too deep at times IMO, left a lot of space for passes behind Bruno and Mainoo and in front of Casemiro. Smith Rowe had loads of room in that hole.
 
Not sure what Amorim was asking of him, or whether he felt too much pressure in the few minutes he got under him, but to struggle so much with the basics to being able to play like this now is a big turnaround. A few passes got intercepted but I thought he was very solid overall.
 
I did not think he played well Today. Today was a game for more controlled possession and i still felt like he played more in transitions than he had to and gave the ball away uncessarily 4-5 times when we needed control. Over the last 3 games inthought this was the worst performance because it needed something different from him.

Other seem to have a different opinion here and i didnt see it.

Im ok with him having inconsistent games but if we had another option om the bench i would have taken him out.

Our problem is we cant do that
 
Thought he was decent enough. Nothing amazing but just a good/mid performance from him.
 
Was by far his actual best performance since Carrick came in. I think much of the noise has just been narrative fuel, and an over-excitement about a turn away from Semenyo.

Today, however, his performance was brilliant. Won the ball back so often, secure passing and good energy.
 
He needs a proper partner. After Casemiro went off, he was completely on his own in there. Much more all round, even his passing had a bit more distance on it.
 
flappyjay said:
His passing was a bit more positive today and may it continue.
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Noticed that too. This is his best game this season, imho. He's performing as a "real" center midfielder, not just there playing "nice" passes..
 
DWelbz19 said:
I feel like his diagonals are getting better. I’m just hoping at some point in the next year or two he just evolves and unlocks mid and long range passing quality to his game
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100% agree with this. He's playing better forward balls and switching play with more authority than he used to. He's always show fantastic awareness of player positions around him and technically strikes a ball beautifully so this is an element of his game I think we all hoped he'd grow into and there does seem to be a few early signs of it happening.
 
Brilliant performance. He's playing those long passes that were missing from his game and putting in those challenges as well. Very good development.
 
He lost possession a few too many times, but he at least seems back to looking like the same very promising player who first broke through, unlike the shell of himself he was under Amorim. He is still only 20 as well.
 
Agree with those talking about his passing. Marked improvement today in his intent and urgency to play a penetrative pass.

His 2 major issues have been passing range and running power, will make a big difference to his game if he can that rounded passing range.
 
He waned, as did all the team.

Really liked that he put himself about a bit. More physical more aggression.

He’s quality. He’s not even played 100 games in his career. Obviously he’s still developing.
 
ValenciasDrilledCrosses said:
Something was off about our midfield setup today because Fulham sliced through it like butter. But when he actually had to engage in duels and get on the ball, I thought Mainoo did very well.
Click to expand...
They had four players in midfield at times. They have forwards, full backs and CB's sometimes getting in there, so it's just number of bodies.
Fulham looked like a very well drilled team, with some excellent ball players, I think they'll give any team a battle. The movement off the ball was very good, Marco Silva seems to be a very good coach, albeit volatile.
Mainoo was excellent, his calmness helps I think.
 
Did well, so good in right areas and showed a good passing range today so very encouraging.
 
Brilliant today. The fact we have no cover at all for him is a bit worrying though. Looked tired in the last 10 minutes or so.
 
So good today. Love this kid. Best to just look forward now and not think about the first half of the season. Who suits him best as a partner and how we build and how he develops.

Very much in with a shot of that England squad too.
 
DWelbz19 said:
I feel like his diagonals are getting better. I’m just hoping at some point in the next year or two he just evolves and unlocks mid and long range passing quality to his game
Click to expand...
Looks like he’s being asked to try more forward thinking passes which is great, if that’s the case I’m sure he’ll only get better at them, a few of his clipped passes over the top weren’t far off.
 
ValenciasDrilledCrosses said:
Something was off about our midfield setup today because Fulham sliced through it like butter. But when he actually had to engage in duels and get on the ball, I thought Mainoo did very well.
Click to expand...

I think this is probably fair, although it's no fluke that what little midfield solidity we did have vanished when Casemiro went off.

Mainoo surprised me with his long balls today, they were generally good and he showed good vision with them. And he did well in terms of duels too.

The flip side though is that positionally he was regularly out of position, Casemiro had to hold our midfield by himself at times and Fulham cut through with ease.
 
Utterly ridiculous today. Sure, Mainoo is no prime Scholes or Pirlo, but when you keep in mind what he’s been through this season and his age, his performance today was outstanding.
 
Solid, and promising signs with his longer range passing. Not as eye-catching as he can be sometimes. Unfortunate that two lovely balls over the top he spotted - one to Bruno and one to Shaw - were both slightly overhit.

Still lacks the ability to cover ground dynamically enough next to Casemiro, though it's much less of a problem in this system than Amorim's. And Casemiro is admittedly very clever about using his positioning to mask the problem. But still plenty of occasions we were caught and neither could catch back up with the play.

He could look even better next to a physically dynamic partner, especially if he can grow that long passing game and play more of a distributor role.
 
red woppit said:
They had four players in midfield at times. They have forwards, full backs and CB's sometimes getting in there, so it's just number of bodies.
Fulham looked like a very well drilled team, with some excellent ball players, I think they'll give any team a battle. The movement off the ball was very good, Marco Silva seems to be a very good coach, albeit volatile.
Mainoo was excellent, his calmness helps I think.
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Yup. Agree with all of this. As usual, people are analysing everything we do without giving any credit to the opposition. Fulham are very in strong midfield, partly because of personnel and partly because of tactics. One of the more difficult midfield battles we’ll have. Kobbie played very very well despite this. Great to see.
 
The mood in this thread will be good, because we won and he's done well defensively being in the right position today, but he will be our weakest link going forward. Starting Mainoo basically mean conceding possession. Some of his passes over the top I thought, having better passer there we would create good chances but always slightly over hit that while having plenty of room to play into.

He most probably be also the slowest player in the Premier League, which is kinda frustrating because I thought we would be working hard on his intensity but he doesnt have it.
 
Casemiro is a better player let’s not be naive. We’ll need to replace Casemiro accordingly to allow him to thrive here
 
I thought he had a good game but agree with previous comments, something was off with midfield setup today. Seemed like the distance between out players was too big in Central areas and Fulham had 2 man advantage most of the game.

Maybe that's Dorgu missing as he was doing a lot of dirty work off the ball. Maybe Bruno and Cunha were too far up. Need to rewatch the game looking for this specific aspect.
 
He is improving with each game, and is, importantly, getting minutes into those legs.. he needs to keep playing, playing, playing.

Looks like a starter and that's good, but he still has another gear.. but he's getting there and has been key in our last few games.

I'm pleased for him. And he has the perfect manager who will teach him a huge amount.
 
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