{"id":564938,"date":"2026-05-04T02:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T02:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/564938\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T02:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T02:14:13","slug":"kobbie-mainoo-taking-last-lessons-off-casemiro-but-ready-to-make-position-his-own-manchester-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/564938\/","title":{"rendered":"Kobbie Mainoo taking last lessons off Casemiro but ready to make position his own | Manchester United"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018You need someone like this.\u201d So said Benjamin Sesko of Casemiro after the veteran\u2019s commanding display against Brentford last Monday<\/a>. Fast forward six days and the same sentiment applied to Kobbie Mainoo. Manchester United had two central midfielders like this \u2013 selfless, disciplined, destructive and creative \u2013 while Liverpool desperately need someone like this. Old Trafford revelled in the contrast, once it had recovered from a self-inflicted scare.<\/p>\n

The redemption arc was strong at Old Trafford where United sealed their return to the Champions League by completing a Premier League double over Liverpool<\/a> for the first time in 10 years. Mainoo savoured his own too. Cast aside earlier in the season under Ruben Amorim, his future with his boyhood club in serious doubt, the 21-year-old celebrated signing a five-year contract on Thursday by securing a deserved victory with his first Premier League goal since May 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cManchester born and bred\u201d proclaimed the public address announcer as Mainoo took the acclaim of the Stretford End after his 77th-minute winner. Stockport, Greater Manchester, born and bred, to be exact. It was right to acknowledge the local connection in a fixture that reverberates around the world even when the only prize on offer was third place in the table. But it was not Mainoo\u2019s birthplace that distinguished him at Old Trafford. It was his maturity in and out of possession, his refusal to lose his head while United seemed intent on giving away victory, the Liverpool attacks he broke and the determination to beat Dominik Szoboszlai to Alexis Mac Allister\u2019s weak clearance and clinch the win that separated the midfielder from his peers.<\/p>\n

Mainoo has only three more games to listen and learn from Casemiro alongside him. He is making the most of the Brazilian\u2019s education. \u201cI\u2019m so blessed to be in this position,\u201d said the matchwinner. \u201cI used to dream about days like this. I\u2019m glad to be here and my future\u2019s at this club.\u201d<\/p>\n

United\u2019s central midfield provided the platform for Michael Carrick\u2019s team to dominate their fierce rivals in the first half and re-establish control having given Liverpool an unlikely reprieve early in the second. Liverpool\u2019s recovery from two goals down may have restored some credibility to their performance, and showed there is some fight in them after all, but the unvarnished truth for Slot is that the comeback owed everything to United errors and not his team\u2019s quality. Once Cody Gakpo equalised after Senne Lammens\u2019s mistake, it seemed a question of when not if United would regain the advantage, long before Mainoo supplied the answer.<\/p>\n

The mitigating circumstances behind Liverpool\u2019s 18th defeat of the season in all competitions were extensive and genuine. They started without a recognised right-back, again, with the third-choice goalkeeper, Freddie Woodman, deputising for the injured Alisson and Giorgi Mamardashvili for the second successive game and were also without a focal point in attack. Alexander Isak picked up a minor muscle problem in training before the game and was deemed a risk not worth taking after an injury-plagued debut season.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Slot spoke of the need to build an attack around the \u00a3125m striker when the summer transfer window opens. A necessary strategy, no doubt, but one that is also fraught with risk given Isak\u2019s injury record. The final touch of United\u2019s two first-half goals, scored via the backside of Mac Allister and the stomach or hand of Sesko \u2013 Slot was adamant it was the hand \u2013 heightened the sense of misfortune among the visitors.<\/p>\n

Florian Wirtz and Dominik Szoboszlai were part of an underwhelming Liverpool in defeat at Old Trafford. Photograph: Robbie Jay Barratt\/AMA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

It is possible to be unlucky and an average team, however, as Liverpool\u2019s first-half display demonstrated. Slot\u2019s side were routinely pulled apart by United\u2019s slick exchanges down the right and contained easily by the home defence. Thoughts of another early dart from Manchester, in keeping with the mass exodus from the Etihad Stadium during the FA Cup quarter-final humbling<\/a> by City, must have crossed the mind of some away fans before Amad Diallo\u2019s careless pass to Szoboszlai changed the complexion of the contest moments after the restart.<\/p>\n

In contrast to his direct rivals in the heart of United\u2019s midfield, Mac Allister endured another afternoon to forget while Ryan Gravenberch was also on the periphery. The downturn in form of the Argentina World Cup winner can be added to the mitigating circumstances behind Liverpool\u2019s troubled season, not just this visit to Old Trafford. Having turned his back on Matheus Cunha\u2019s shot and deflected it beyond Woodman, Mac Allister erred for United\u2019s second goal with a wayward ball under no pressure straight to Mainoo. Maybe that explained the midfielder\u2019s reluctance to pass forwards towards the false 9 pair of Szoboszlai and Florian Wirtz, who was anonymous yet again. Mac Allister\u2019s tendency to stop, turn and take the safe option of a pass back to his defenders drove the Liverpool fans to audible distraction.<\/p>\n

Mainoo preferred to be bold, to break lines and support his forwards whenever the situation presented itself. Victory, redemption and a place in the Champions League next season was his merited reward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018You need someone like this.\u201d So said Benjamin Sesko of Casemiro after the veteran\u2019s commanding display against Brentford…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-564938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}