He had one great moment, the cross for the offside goal, which would have dragged his rating up a bit had it stood. But other than that he was a passenger; really poor defending for the West Ham goal, had a total of 2 defensive contributions one of which was a missed tackle, lost the ball too often, and his phobia of passing the ball forwards limits how useful he can be in a game like this.
37
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 24
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 3
- Yellow cards
- 1
-
In the latest edition of the United Hour Podcast, we interview Duncan Drasdo of MUST - covering ticket prices, new stadium, INEOS and what fans should be demanding from our club.
Also, due to technical issues we couldn't put a notice up for the previous episode which was about the game against Bournemouth and other stuff. If you'd like to listen to it, click here.
I thought he did alright. Kept going, showed for the ball and didn’t panic. Kept playing in tight spaces and tried to make things happen.
Maybe that game will get the Guimaraes comparisons and the talk about him starting for England back to a reasonable level. Don't think, he had a bad game, he did alright, didn't look great defensively in their goal but overall, wasn't terrible. PLayed mostly the exact same as he played in the games before, just with less favorable environments (for the most part).
I thought he started extremely brightly and then as the game got higher up the pitch, he started to wane and got played around pretty easily. Plus that bounced pass into the run of Case is exactly what's missing from his game, actually my most positive review of him, despite the circumstances of the game. Keep progressing.
very poor for the goal. Doesn't check his shoulder at all
other than the cross for Casemiro thought his passing was poor tonight also, kept finding players who were already tightly marked causing us to lose possession
other than the cross for Casemiro thought his passing was poor tonight also, kept finding players who were already tightly marked causing us to lose possession
If he wants to keep that midfield spot next season he has to impose himself a bit more. Lovely assist for the disallowed goal, but other than that he became too passive.
In a game like yesterday we need the midfield to be a bit more dynamic and creative. They have to keep up the tempo and sometimes do the unexpected to rattle the opposition.
Something tells me that it is a tempo thing. I think he spends a bit too much time on the ball and doesn't cover it well enough. He's often right on the edge to loosing it when he is chased from behind in the middle of the park.
That said, I really enjoy having such a capable player in there along with Casemiro and Bruno. They can all recieve the ball under pressure without panicking, and can all pick out a pass.
But next season he will most likely have to battle it out with some new signings, and he has to show a bit more presence to keep his spot.
In a game like yesterday we need the midfield to be a bit more dynamic and creative. They have to keep up the tempo and sometimes do the unexpected to rattle the opposition.
Something tells me that it is a tempo thing. I think he spends a bit too much time on the ball and doesn't cover it well enough. He's often right on the edge to loosing it when he is chased from behind in the middle of the park.
That said, I really enjoy having such a capable player in there along with Casemiro and Bruno. They can all recieve the ball under pressure without panicking, and can all pick out a pass.
But next season he will most likely have to battle it out with some new signings, and he has to show a bit more presence to keep his spot.
I think he makes us play better, and he's good enough to play with pretty much anyone besides him. Will be interesting to see who we partner with him next season.
We tried the unexpected thing over a d over, did nothing. We needed players like Mainoo a d amad to link up basic passes in the tighter areas to help create something.
Bizarre take. Watch a replay. Casemiro was the closest midfielder to Soucek. Can't blame Kobbie for assuming he would continue to track a run he had started to follow. I don't think I'd be too harsh on either of them. It was a really well timed run and cross. These things happen. That goal was on Shaw.
Jesus wept. Obviously a predictable opinion, coming from you, but do you realise what a parody you're becoming?Honestly thought he was one of our better players against West Ham. He's clearly not the finished article, but his composure and passing adds so much to us. He'll continue to improve, I'm convinced. Cant believe we almost sold him...
That sounds like an agenda.
I like Kobbie but long term he is going to need to improve his output in terms of goals and assists and the impact he has on games. Thought he didn’t really have much impact on this game. He is young though so has time.
A few of our players do this for no reason and really bugs me. They go slow on the ball and wait till the last second, when the oppo player is literally all over them. Bruno, Amad, Cunha & Shaw also always do it. Would be much better just getting it and passing it on quicker.
He played really well. He's always moving and finding spaces to run in to, doesn't let the play slow down. Kind of like Cleverley used to but he's better.
He brings so much balance to our team but I do think he needs to be a bit more progressive with his passing, which he did more when we went down.
The players and the manager should demand more from him because his ceiling is so high.
The players and the manager should demand more from him because his ceiling is so high.
He is more of a link player, at least that's what Carrick said. He will initiative the moves and wont be at the end of it. He wont be a goal and assist type midfielder.
Which is sad, to run this agenda against a 20 year old CM who spentwhole of his footballing career from youth days at ManUtd, to support the worst ever manager in ManUtd history.
Anyone trying to blame Mainoo instead of Martinez for West Ham's goal needs to look at themselves. The CB needs to go and deal with the ball out wide when Shaw has been caught out but if he doesn't he then REALLY needs to deal with the cross that comes in and he's in no man's land. Anything that happens thereafter is just what it is.
That. Blaming Shaw is pointless too, we're going to give the ball away in tight areas sometimes, it's how we deal with it. And that should have been Martinez closing the gap and trying to stop the cross going over, quite basic defending. If Heaven or Yoro had done similar, we'd all have been up in arms about the inexperienced player not being a proper defender.
He still had a good game for me, but I think plenty around here don't appreciate a midfielder who always adjusts his position and shows to receive 5-yard passes, then can find angles to make a 5-yard pass after... to a team-mate. We haven't had anyone doing that in CM for years, so perhaps we all forgot what a proper CM should be doing. Kobbie does it, he helps us keep control of the ball for longer periods and work it up the pitch. It keeps the pressure off at the other end.
He's got a good little partnership going with Case as well, they played well as a pair last night. Summat we haven't had since the brief glory days of Fredaini.
I'd say about 4 of them are to blame for that. Mainoo isn't experienced enough to be blamed but he was at some fault, even if Shaw and Martinez deserve more criticism.
Tbf that particular poster accused me of having a midfield agenda after the Bournemouth game, because I said a proper midfield setup with cover might have stopped some of the goals. So every now and again, I call their posts out as an agenda.
They're in here shitting on a kid, who's not played much for months and has come back in the team and been one of the better performing players over the last few weeks.
As for the goal, I don't see how anyone can blame Mainoo, it's all on Shaw for letting the ball bounce, everyone else is trying to play catch up to make up for his mistake.
Shaw the biggest mistake for not reading the high ball and then doing the bad lunge to try and fix his mistake, Licha the 2nd mistake, Mainoo the 3rd mistake getting caught ball watching. He'll learn. Thought he played well yesterday again generally.
Another good performance from him. The lack of rust he has shown has been very impressive on top of his performances.
He's doing so much unappreciated and unnoticed work keeping things ticking over. Was closed down a lot last night but held his own. Good to see him have a tough game and still cope well. He's so good with the ball at his feet. It's so easy under that type of environment for a young player to lose his head and start doing unnecessary and dopy stuff but he was disciplined.
Thought he dif well. Those kinds of games really are going to be hard for CMs to have a huge effect unless they’re assisting from some kind of long ball/cross (which he actually did but it was just off) or scoring a worldy. There was just no space. More importantly he keeps the ball, he links stuff up and shows for the passes unlike others ie Shaw who Martinez kept shouting at to push up.
It’s not an Ozil bounce but it was a lovely dinked pass. One in the eye for anyone still wanging on about him never passing forward.
I thought he looked classy at times, he was involved in most of our play and had a decent game. I think we were just quite passive in the final third generally and West Ham were incredibly focused and stuck to their task brilliantly.
I don't think anyone says this, do they? But he does seem to play it too safe sometimes. He's broadly very tidy on the ball, great in tight spaces and an accurate short passer, but you can't watch the game yesterday and claim he made much happen. I get that he keeps things ticking over but he does need to do a bit more to make things happen imo.
Was unexceptional yesterday to me. Not particularly good, not bad.
Last edited:
I want him probing more and Licha dilly dallying less
He is so good. The press-resistant connector is the right label for him. Thriving in this midfield. He can contribute more goals and assists cos he has that in his locker, but overall he is just so good at what he does.
Difficult to judge, tough game and was like the others, unable to do much.
I think this type of game highlights that we have no one who can dictate play.
We have no one who can dictate play as well no one who can actually open up defenses unless we are playing on transition and that includes our talisman Bruno Fernandes .
Our last Summer signings instead of addressing the issue might have made them more acute we have to get this Summer signings right otherwise we might end up building a squad with a very low ceiling .
I mean, "never" is obviously an exggeration but this thread is riddled with criticism for not passing the ball forward enough. Which is, ironically, highly reminiscent of the criticism the manager who finally saw his value used to get when he played for us. I don't think every central midfielder has to "make things happen". Especially someone playing in the same team as Bruno and Casemiro, who both love playing vertical, Hollywood passes. Mainoo's skillset and style complements them perfectly and is one of the most important factors in our recent resurgence. Evidence of which was all over yesterday's game, despite the result. A game in which our midfield did their job very well, apart from that one moment of loose marking when we conceded.
Bizarre take. Watch a replay. Casemiro was the closest midfielder to Soucek. Can't blame Kobbie for assuming he would continue to track a run he had started to follow. I don't think I'd be too harsh on either of them. It was a really well timed run and cross. These things happen. That goal was on Shaw.
For me the parody is inflating nothing performances and deflecting any blame from him no matter what.
He was a passenger last night, barely passing the ball forward, offering nothing defensively, etc. If Ugarte had put in that performance his thread would be in uproar, and nor would you be making a bit deal about an overhit bobbling pass that ran out of play. It's so obviously performative.
I'm starting to enjoy this double act
I just think it's such a lazy rebuttal to criticism of a player 90% of the time.
Really a shame for him that Casemiro's goal didn't count. Was a great cross regardless, and would love to see more of that from him.
Those players are rare though, arsenal don't either.