Kobbie Mainoo moves from outsider to main man after summer of hurt

It was a sight the England press pack became increasingly used to seeing after the team’s World Cup matches over the summer. Kobbie Mainoo was invariably the first to leave the dressing room, walk through the mixed zone – eyes dead ahead, features impassive – and board the bus.

It was as if he could not get out of the stadiums quick enough and the further England progressed the more pronounced it started to feel. There was a real gap between Mainoo and the next England player to depart the stadium in the knockout rounds. The Manchester United midfielder is inscrutable, even in the heat of battle. It is part of his enviably unflappable temperament. It was no great leap to imagine what lay behind the mask – tremendous frustration as Thomas Tuchel kept on leaving him out.

Mainoo did not play a single minute at the tournament. He was an unused substitute all the way to the semi-final exit against Argentina, and when everyone expected to see him in the third-place playoff against France he did not make the bench. The Football Association said before the game he had picked up an unspecified injury.

For Mainoo it was a lost summer and yet it was physically and mentally draining all the same, what with the training and travel; the demand to stay focused as he waited and waited. Like every player who was part of a squad that reached the final weekend of the World Cup, he reported late for pre-season training with his club. Mainoo played the last half hour of United’s final friendly against Milan and that was it. On the opening weekend of the season, he was fit enough only to be a substitute at Hull, coming on with 23 minutes to go and United 2-0 down, en route to a damaging defeat.

There has been a spotlight on Mainoo, with some fans wondering how he would react to the suffocation of his World Cup dream; his treatment by Tuchel, who preferred Elliot Anderson and Declan Rice in the deeper midfield positions and, also, at various times, Reece James, Jude Bellingham, Jordan Henderson, Morgan Rogers and Nico O’Reilly. Nobody should have worried. Mainoo is made of stern stuff. United regeared their midfield to the tune of £155m during the transfer window, adding Youri Tielemans, Andrey Santos and Carlos Baleba. Baleba has not yet played because of injury, but as United prepare for Sunday’s derby at Old Trafford, it is Mainoo who has reasserted himself.

The 21-year-old has been outstanding in each of United’s matches since the opener at Hull – against Ipswich, Everton and then Sabah in the Champions League on Thursday night. The question for Michael Carrick in the derby will be Mainoo and who in front of the back four.

There is a reason why the United support have adapted the lyrics to Billy Ocean’s Love Really Hurts Without You to declare that their team cannot play without Mainoo. A couple of statistics. In the past three games, he has attempted 211 passes and completed 201, which represents extraordinary security on the ball – particularly given the frequency with which he has it. Also, the degree of risk inherent to so much of what he does.

Then there is the number that shows he made a game‑high 15 defensive contributions against Ipswich and Everton. He is improving out of possession. As much as anything, though, it is the quickness of the feet, the hip-shaking feints and changes of direction; how he simultaneously keeps his opponents on their heels and recalibrates United’s angles of attack.

Mainoo, of course, has already made his big comeback this year. Ruben Amorim could not fit him into his 3-4-2-1 system; the Portuguese did not trust him defensively. But even so, it continues to feel absurd that Amorim did not give him a single start in the Premier League last season. Mainoo’s first in the competition came in January against City at Old Trafford after Carrick had taken over.

It was the first match of Carrick’s second spell as the club’s manager and nobody really knew how it would go. “The players … maybe myself [as well], the coaches, obviously you guys in the media,” Carrick says. Everything came together in spectacular fashion, United winning 2-0, Mainoo straight back into the groove that had helped him win over Amorim’s predecessor, Erik ten Hag.

If it was an ignition point for Carrick, it was the same for Mainoo, whose form for the remainder of the season helped to drive United to a third-place finish and convince Tuchel to take him to the World Cup. As an aside, Mainoo v Anderson, who completed a £116m move from Nottingham Forest to City in July, will be box office. Anderson was a target for United before City blew them away with their offer. He called City “the kings of Manchester” on the day he signed.

United’s dominance of the derby in January was almost total and a key takeaway was the slick first-time football they played. Remember the passing sequence when Rayan Cherki was triangulated by Matheus Cunha, Luke Shaw and Bruno Fernandes? The click was immediate for Carrick. This is the type of stuff that he wants; what he needs to see more of against City as he hopes to locate a bit of early-season momentum.

Carrick knows a deep-sitting tempo-setter when he sees one, the player of the pass before the pass, and he doubled down on this sort of technician with his summer reboot, especially in Tielemans. It was also noticeable that when the luckless Mason Mount, who is back from his latest injury, came on for Tielemans against Sabah, he did so in a deeper midfield role. Carrick’s idea is to play through the middle. It is about balls to feet, timing, distances.

“It was nice to get Mason on in the second half and Andrey Santos [for Mainoo] and keep seeing the same things,” Carrick says. “It’s the combinations and connections. Taking the ball and playing close together at times. We have the technical ability for the boys to take the ball in the middle of the pitch. A lot of it is on wavelength and understanding … where each of them want the ball, which we are developing. It’s probably something that we’ve done a bit more of this season.”

Carrick is expected to start Tielemans alongside Mainoo with Fernandes as the third midfielder. They will be up against Anderson, Enzo Fernández and Cherki. It is a mouthwatering showdown. It will be where the derby is won or lost.