In the win, Michael Carrick<\/a> started Kobbie Mainoo<\/a>, giving the 20-year-old his first start of this Premier League season, and he ran with it.<\/p>\n Having dominated the midfield, Mainoo wowed fans in the Manchester derby<\/a>, doing everything that once made him one of the best prospects in world football.<\/p>\n Carrick hailed Mainoo after the game<\/a>, and now the Carrington graduate has taken to Instagram with a message, and he\u2019s got plenty of support in the comments.<\/p>\n WHO was your man of the match for Manchester United vs City? <\/p>\n Let us know who you picked\u2026<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n Kobbie Mainoo sends a message on Instagram<\/p>\n After a season of struggles for minutes, Mainoo was excellent against City<\/a>, with the performance begging the question of why Ruben Amorim refused to play him.<\/p>\n Winning duels, playing long balls, and shining physically, Mainoo will know his performance vindicates him against Amorim, with Carrick set to platform the talented number 37.<\/p>\n Mainoo posted an image of himself walking into the Old Trafford tunnel alongside new head coach Carrick, writing, \u201cBelieve that\u201d.<\/p>\n A clear message to Amorim, who had treated Mainoo in a baffling manner. But now the midfielder has performed to a very high level, and this shows he should have been playing all along.<\/p>\n In response to Mainoo, there were plenty of comments of support, suggesting he had finally been freed.<\/p>\n How would YOU rate Kobbie Mainoo\u2019s performance vs City out of 10? <\/p>\n \ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n Manchester United players and legends respond to Mainoo<\/p>\n Amorim didn\u2019t get enough criticism for his treatment of Mainoo, and now that the 20-year-old is back, he\u2019s got lots of support.<\/p>\n One comment came from Patrice Evra<\/a>, who wrote, \u201cMay god protect you and look forward now\u201d, with a heart.<\/p>\n Ayden Heaven<\/a> commented, \u201cHe\u2019s back\u201d, a clear hint toward the Amorim treatment.<\/p>\n United goalscorer Bryan Mbeumo<\/a> said, \u201cMy son\u201d, with a heart. While Shea Lacey<\/a> added, \u201cWhere you belong\u201d.<\/p>\n Toby Collyer simply added a smiling emoji. While Maxi Oyedele wrote, \u201cShackles off.\u201d<\/p>\n The big takeaway from the game, Mainoo is back, and he\u2019s here to stay.<\/p>\n Join Our Newsletter <\/p>\n Receive a digest of our best United content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kobbie Mainoo is back to his best at Manchester United following Ruben Amorim\u2019s exit as head coach, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[16811,198787,403,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-414767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-kobbie-mainoo","9":"tag-patrice-evra","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Kobbie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2256134924-1024x683.jpg\")
Photo by Ash Donelon\/Manchester United via Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/UIF-2026-01-17T143017.226-819x1024.png\")
Getty Images <\/p>\n