Manchester United midfielder Kobbie Mainoo’s struggles continued in a lacklustre 0-2 loss against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Thursday.
The 19-year-old was one of the few bright spots from a dismal previous season and announced himself to the football world with numerous top notch performances.
Mainoo put his name up in lights last season when he scored a sensational solo goal to give his side a 4-3 win late on in February at Molineux. At the same venue yesterday, things could not have gone more differently.
United slipped to their fourth Premier League defeat in five games and there does not seem an obvious way out of the slump with Newcastle and Liverpool the team’s next two league fixtures.
Mainoo started alongside Manuel Ugarte in the centre of the park but put in a poor performance as he lived on the periphery of the game for the 63 minutes he was on the pitch.
He only had 37 touches of the ball and completed just 20 out of 29 passes.
The 19 year old also had no shots on goal and failed in his only dribble attempt.
Mainoo was no more effective defensively, as he only won two out of his seven ground duels and lost his only aerial battle.
He also lost the ball eleven times as he failed once again to stamp his authority on the game.
Mainoo is still clearly a top talent and will undoubtedly return to form but there is no arguing with the fact that he is yet to find his place in Ruben Amorim’s system.
Whilst Manuel Ugarte looks very much at home in the Portuguese’s system, Mainoo is somewhat caught in no-man’s land as fans can’t work out what type of midfielder he is supposed to be.
The second season was always going to be a learning curve and it was never going to run as smoothly as his outstanding debut campaign.
Nonetheless, his poor form and apparent lack of suitability to Amorim’s style of football is becoming a greater concern for fans with every passing game.
Feature image Shaun Botterill via Getty Images
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
