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Manchester United midfielder Kobbie Mainoo was an unused substitute on the first day of the Premier League season, looking on as Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes played centrally in front of Ruben Amorim’s ill-fated back three.
United emerged from their 1-0 defeat against Arsenal with some credit. A set piece goal was their undoing but there was a freshness about the performance as Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha made their debuts at Old Trafford.
Michael Carrick could save Kobbie Mainoo’s lost season
Mainoo has been linked with moves to various clubs including Premier League rivals Chelsea and Aston Villa in the last couple of transfer windows but, as the Red Devils prepare to face Arsenal in the reverse fixture this weekend, it’s now widely reported that he will stay at Old Trafford.
2025-26 hasn’t been Mainoo’s season. The 20-year-old played fewer than 250 minutes in the Premier League before Michael Carrick was installed as United’s interim head coach and some of those were under caretaker boss Darren Fletcher. It was no surprise that transfer speculation was rife.
But this is modern Manchester United, where the dream is never quite over for a player with just enough stickability to outlast his manager.
Alejandro Garnacho, Jadon Sancho, Antony and even Marcus Rashford were unable to hang on for long enough but Mainoo stayed the course. Seeing successive former United midfielders coming in to replace Amorim must have given Mainoo a major morale boost.
Had Mainoo been allowed to leave and go on to succeed elsewhere, it would have been seen as a serious failure of United’s famed academy pathway and, perhaps, as even Amorim’s greatest shortcomings as the United boss.
The Stockport-born midfielder has been a United player since he was seven years old and has demonstrated ample ability and maturity beyond his years even in the pressurised environment of a frequently unimpressed Old Trafford.
With Amorim gone, Carrick in until May and the maligned back three banished, Mainoo was given the chance to remind supporters of his abilities in his first Premier League start of the season.
He got the nod in the middle with Brazilian veteran Casemiro, a combination Carrick appears to have been champing at the bit to deploy in the Manchester derby.
Mainoo looked every bit his old self in United’s victory over Manchester City, bringing composure and control to the midfield, protecting central defenders Harry Maguire and Lisandro Martinez, and allowing Fernandes to focus on putting in a man of the match display behind Bryan Mbeumo.
Carrick delivered in his first match and it could set the tone for an improved second half of the season. United are in touch with the top four and are very much in the mix for a Champions League place. Amorim’s time was up but he left behind a challenge, not a lost cause.
“I’ve watched a lot,” Carrick said after the Red Devils’ derby win. “We’ve got season tickets, so my family comes and I’ve come to a lot of games over recent times. You get to know the players and your own eye.
“Everyone has an opinion and there are your instincts. It’s obviously something that clicks into gear when you think maybe it might be on my toes to do something about it.
“Kobbie was great alongside [Casemiro]. Between the two of them it gave us a foundation.”
Carrick might have arrived in the nick of time not only to capitalise on United’s European chances but to save Mainoo’s United career. Mainoo matters for the Red Devils. He means something. He represents something. It was good to see him back where he belongs, doing what he does best.
United face Arsenal again on Sunday afternoon. They visit the Premier League leaders intent on testing the Gunners’ unbeaten home record. If they do, they’ll move to within 12 points of the frontrunners with 15 matches to play.
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