Kobbie Mainoo is our midfielder

There was a flag in the away end at the National Arena in Bucharest that read: ‘Kobbie Mainoo is our midfielder’.

The sub-header was: ‘Just like Robson, Scholes, Keane’. There is little doubt the homegrown talent, an FA Cup-winning hero last summer against Manchester City, is someone the United supporters are understandably proud of, and always will be.

Someone who provides hope for the future with a clear level of high potential that was quickly recognised by England, as he became influential in their European Championship campaign. He even started the final, against Spain, but the bigger picture was he was playing a lot of football at a young age, and his club career would probably have benefited from more of a rest.

With the responsibility came increased expectation and Kobbie has had to contend with a change in manager, well head coach, and system this term. In Bucharest, as United defeated FCSB to clinch the desired top-eight spot in the Europa League, he grew in stature.

As an ardent watcher of the Reds from close up, he looks bigger to me this season, and stronger. In this tie, he was deployed further forward, with Bruno Fernandes dropping into a deeper midfield role, and it ended up reaping dividends.

Kobs will feel he should have scored in the first half, when firing over the top from Rasmus Hojlund’s cute cutback, but the run into a good shooting position was, in itself, encouraging in a rather flat opening 45 minutes.

With United enlivened by the arrival of Amad and Alejandro Garnacho after the interval, more threat on goal was supplied and we kicked on to gain the three points.

Mainoo was at the heart of the quickfire double, firstly crossing to provide a lovely assist for Diogo Dalot, who tapped home the opener. It was a reminder of Mainoo’s quality and put an extra spring in his step afterwards.

Our second goal chalked up his first of the campaign, as he calmly guided a Garnacho pass wide of Stefan Tarnovanu in the FCSB net, with minimum fuss. Similar to the way he despatched that famous winner against City at Wembley.

A lot of people think Kobbie may develop into someone who plays in a more attacking position as he gets older and more experienced. Perhaps one of Ruben’s two no.10 slots may end up being for him. Whatever the short and long term future holds, this was an occasion where our no.37 impressed all those inside the stadium.

A lot of the Romanians admire the United players and I can see Mainoo’s popularity rising here on the back of having evidenced his impact first hand in their capital city.

And the main thing about Mainoo to remember is he’s still a teenager. He’ll get stronger and matchwinning performances like this will become more frequent. He just needs some patience and something he has in abundance already: the backing of the United faithful. He is, as the banner says, our midfielder.

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