Kobbie Mainoo: Manchester United’s English Midfield Metronome
In the middle of last season, Kobbie Mainoo broke into the Manchester United squad with a bang. After the November match against Everton, the young Englishman began to appear regularly on the pitch, taking playing time away from the more experienced Christian Eriksen and Sofyan Amrabat, and by the end of the year had played almost 2,500 minutes in all competitions. The United academy pupil delighted fans with his mature play and great technique, and Gareth Southgate even called Mainoo to the European Championships, where the Englishman played in three matches.
Fans expected continued progress, but at the start of the new season Mainoo looked faded. He was more often lost under pressure, was late with decisions on the ball and began to pass more conservatively. Under Rúben Amorim, the Englishman started as a centre midfielder, but in recent matches he has been playing in the top three – as an inside forward against FCSB and Leicester City, and as a striker against Crystal Palace. Nick Bobrov takes a look at Mainoo’s performances under Amorim and the reasons for the change of position in his latest article.
Mainoo as a centre midfielder
A key change in Mainoo’s role in possession
At Sporting, Amorim had a clear division within a pair of central midfielders. One of them, usually the right one, made simple but quality decisions during build-up phase, rarely running forward (Manuel Ugarte, Morten Hjulmand). The left one, on the contrary, played in a more dynamic role, often receiving the ball in the final third and attacking the opponent’s penalty area with spurts from deep (Matheus Nunes, Hidemasa Morita).
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The presence of Ugarte in United’s line-up allowed Amorim to instantly revert to his old ways of splitting roles. When launching attacks, Mainoo operated more freely than the more defensive midfielder, for example, often dropping behind Everton and Nottingham Forest’s midfield block to receive the ball without pressure. But the key change in Mainoo’s game is in his actions in the other side’s half.
Under Erik ten Hag, Mainoo played as a central midfielder in a 4-2-3-1, his runs into final third were rather erratic, instinctive, as in the Wolverhampton goal episode. With the arrival of Amorim in the actions of the Englishman appeared consistency, in almost every match you can find an episode where Mainoo gets inside opponent’s penalty area through the left half-space, the number of touches inside the penalty area has increased from 1.4 to 3.
Mainoo regularly gets the ball inside the penalty area due to his sense of timing and sharpness. The midfielder patiently waits for the right situation before exploding from the spot, getting away from his opponent on the first step and avoiding offside.
In addition to reading the game and his natural ability, Mainoo has excellent co-operation with Bruno Fernandes, with the Portuguese finding his partner with throughballs more often than not. The number of progressive passes received by Mainoo, similar to touches in the penalty area, has increased by about 2 times compared to last season.
When receiving the ball in the penalty box, the Englishman is more focused on passing than shooting. More often than not, it’s a one-two with Fernandes or a cutback into zone 14. Mainoo has very elastic ankles, when under pressure from several opponents near the goal, he often gets out of a difficult situation, but further the young player is let down by his decision making. In some situations, Mainoo gets greedy and chooses a bad option to continue the attack, in other situations he is slow to pass and loses the ball.
Problems playing without the ball in the middle block
Again, let’s start with a reference to Sporting. In the Portuguese league, Amorim’s team possessed the ball around 60% of the time, Sporting were able to control matches through possession. Unfortunately for fans, United is not as dominant inside the Premier League, in his new team Amorim doesn’t have that option, having to defend more.
Without the ball, United press high on goal kicks, and when the ball is in play, apply aggressive pressure after triggers. The signal to start the pressure is a failed back or lateral pass and a pass to the flank, where the sideline helps the team without the ball to regain possession. But Amorim is not dogmatic about high pressing and does not ask the team to go all the way.
If the ball can’t be taken away or the players are poorly positioned and there is a risk of giving space for the opponent when advancing, the team calmly rolls back into the middle block. In my opinion, Mainoo’s abilities in positional defence were one of the reasons for the Englishman’s change of position, the young United midfielder has several problems when playing without the ball.
Mainoo is a clever midfielder, when the team is in possession, he regularly turns his head and updates information to make decisions as quickly as possible after receiving the ball. But in defence, the Englishman often focuses his attention solely on the ball.
Instead of waiting patiently, Mainoo can move into the tackle without looking at the position of his partners and the opponent. In such situations, he either is not on time to tackle, or he doesn’t do it aggressively enough and leaves the player behind him unguarded. Manuel Ugarte has to cover his partner, who, even despite his brilliant play without the ball, does not always have time to save the situation.
If Mainoo does stay in position and cover the area, his concentration on the ball is hampered in other ways. Due to lack of information, the Englishman often fails to correct his position, fails to take a step or two to the side and leaves the passing line to the opponent between the lines open.
The third flaw is the actions during switches. After quick passes from one half-space to the other, Mainoo does not always keep up with his opponent. The problem is not in the Englishman’s physique, but in his reaction speed. The midfielder gives his opponent a few extra seconds, which are enough to gain a couple of metres and receive the ball without pressure. Mainoo can’t rely on reading the game in such episodes because of his little experience.
The United midfielder also has similar difficulties when opponents run in-behind from deep. He is either late with marking or at the last moment passes the player to the centre-back. Often the opponents are left unguarded and calmly receive the ball inside United’s penalty area.
Mainoo as a final third player
Inside – movement in the centre channel
In the last round of the Europa League against FCSB, Amorim tried Mainoo in a new role – the Englishman swapped positions with Bruno Fernandes and came on as an inside forward. And here again we can’t do without a reference to Sporting. In his Sporting side, Amorim usually had players demanding the ball at his feet (Pedro Gonçalves/Francisco Trincão/Marcus Edwards) rather than running behind him in an inside forward role. From that point of view, Mainoo fits much better than Alejandro Garnacho for example.
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In his new position, the Englishman regularly made two things in possession. From the first seconds of the match, Mainoo constantly overloaded the centre channel with his shifts into the middle. When the ball was on the right flank, he created a diagonal pass option for Noussair Mazraoui and Amad Diallo, and when the ball was in midfield, he offered himself between the lines.
In a couple of episodes, Mainoo caught attention of several opponents with his movement, opening up an area for Lisandro Martínez to carry the ball into final third. In addition, the Englishman often shifted to the sideline, swapping positions with Fernandes, a move that confused the FCSB players.
Twice Mainoo received the ball wide, waited for pressure from the opposition, then passed back to Martinez and immediately accelerated into the vacated space for a pass in-behind from the Argentine.
Garnacho came on at half-time and Mainoo moved to right side. In the 60th minute, he broke into the box after a throw-in and made an assist for Diogo Dalot, before scoring a few minutes later after a classic Amorim combination on the left flank and a cutback from Garnacho.
Forward – helps during build-up
There have been regular rumours of Rasmus Højlund’s discontent in the media in recent weeks, Joshua Zirkzee’s play has not been impressive either. In the match against Crystal Palace, Amorim fielded a line-up with no nominal strikers, with Mainoo, who had never played in that position before, unexpectedly stepping into the forward role.
One of Højlund’s main problems is his inability to keep the ball under pressure. He is truly bad in aerials and he doesn’t offer himself enough for ground passes. Zirkzee, on the other hand, often drops deep, but likes to fumble and lose the ball.
Obviously, there is no point in playing long balls on Mainoo. When developing an attack, the Englishman regularly opened up in both half-spaces. When he received the ball, he did not delay in making decisions, quickly played a pass. Twice such play with partners ended with a switch to the opposite, free part of the field.
In the final third, Mainoo was unaccustomed, he never once touched the ball in the centre channel. The United player was great at creating a numerical advantage in the half-spaces, thanks to which the team penetrated into the penalty area through combinations. Mainoo himself shot on goal only once, after a deflection from a defender’s foot the ball hit the bar.
Conclusion
Mainoo’s new position only raises questions so far. Yes, his defensive disadvantages are critical at this stage of team building, but is he so much worse than Fernandes, who has an extreme attacking mentality to play in a pair of central midfielders?
Will the position in the attacking three become a core position for the young Englishman or is it a temporary measure? Does he remain an untouchable player for the club, given the requests for an unprecedented pay rise? Mainoo’s role in the team and on the pitch is one of the most interesting topics within United for the rest of the season.
By: Nick Bobrov / @normalnik131
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / James Williamson – AMA / Getty Images