Kobbie Mainoo's Unyielding Drive Thrills Michael Carrick
Kobbie Mainoo spent the summer watching. Not playing, not dictating, not doing what he does best. Eight games at a World Cup, not a single minute on the pitch. For some 21-year-olds, that sort of frustration lingers.
He’s treated it like fuel.
Any concern that his rise might stall after a bench-bound summer in North America was blown away last weekend. Thrown back into Manchester United’s starting XI against Ipswich, Mainoo produced what Michael Carrick reckons might be his most complete display yet.
From “cold” in January to indispensable by May, Mainoo’s surge last season forced him into England’s 26-man World Cup squad late. He earned that call with a string of standout performances in the second half of the campaign. Then came the hard bit: being ignored.
Thomas Tuchel didn’t turn to him once during the tournament. Before that, Ruben Amorim had already left him on the fringes in Manchester. Eight matches, no minutes. A long summer of watching others play his position.
Mainoo came back to Carrick for the final week of pre-season with a point to prove. He didn’t waste time.
“He made big strides last season from finishing the season so strong and played ever so well last week again,” Carrick said. “You can see in him his development and how much he’s improving certain aspects of his game. He wants to learn, is hungry to learn, wants more all the time, which is great.”
That’s the part that has really struck the United boss. The mindset. Carrick has seen young players settle once they break through, content just to be in the team. Mainoo isn’t wired that way.
“Because he has had a really good eight months since I’ve been in, and it would be easy for him to think, ‘This is all right, you know, I’ve got in the team, played a lot of games, and everything’s good.’ But he’s pushing for more, as he should.”
He’ll need that edge this season. The landscape around him has changed.
United have thrown £155million at their midfield, with Carlos Baleba, Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans all arriving to fight for starting spots. Mason Mount is back in the mix as well after an eye-catching pre-season was interrupted by a month out injured.
On paper, that is a lot of traffic in the middle of the pitch. On the grass, Mainoo has already planted his flag.
He operated from a deeper role against Ipswich, the very area Amorim had once worried about defensively. Those doubts looked outdated. Mainoo read danger, closed spaces, then used the ball with the calm that has become his trademark. Carrick sees a player rounding out his game, not just surviving in a new position.
“I think the competition’s a positive thing,” Carrick said. “That’s competition, not necessarily because it’s either one player or the other player, I think it’s a collective to know that it’s a strong group.
The beauty of having the competition, if you like, but more the foundation to be strong, is that you can learn off each other, you can help each other, and certainly as a midfield group, we feel that it’s really strong.”
Strong or not, someone still has to own those shirts. Right now, Mainoo is making it very hard to move him.
Carrick is convinced there is another gear to come.
“Kobbie can have another big season, for sure,” he said. “He’s come back great and you see that on the weekend, but in and around the group, in and around training, you can see him growing, his personality. He’s obviously maturing all the time as well, and he’s still so young. There’s loads to still come from him, which is great.”
The key, in Carrick’s eyes, is that Mainoo doesn’t just nod along when he’s coached. He absorbs.
“The great thing about it is that he wants to learn, trying to give him little bits of things here and there, he really takes it on board well and learns. That’s going to give him a great chance to fulfil his potential, which obviously he’s got an awful lot of.”
A summer on the sidelines has not slowed him. It might have sharpened him. Now comes the real test: with money spent, reputations arriving and competition everywhere, can the academy graduate keep hold of a place he’s turning into his own?
