Kobbie Mainoo Proves Football Forgets Fast
From a future England star to riding the bench
Free Kobbie Mainoo.
That’s what I said back on August 30th at the beginning of the new Premier League season. And I still feel the same now.
Football/soccer is a funny sport. It is much more common for a regular starter with one manager to fall out of favor with another manager compared to, say, a sport like basketball. It’s difficult to imagine an instrumental starter on a basketball team being completely removed from the rotation once a new coach is hired.
Yet, that is what has happened at Manchester United with Mainoo. Yes, young prospects come and go after an initial promising stint all the time. But not all play for England and prove themselves at the highest levels of competition at just 19 years old.
That’s what Mainoo and Manchester United fans are grappling with this season. A once promising up-and-coming star who was a bright spot during a bleak Erik ten Hag era is now struggling to get on the pitch for longer than a few minutes at a time. United’s starboy is now forgotten and treated as second-class by its current manager.
Benching in Football
One could argue that Manchester United’s midfield has been worse without Mainoo. United has had its challenges with Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro, but for various reasons, they are both favored over Mainoo.
Changes in player personnel in football are easier to justify because individual football players have far less impact on winning compared to other sports. This stems largely from football’s structure, with 11 players per side on a large field. The game emphasizes team coordination, possession, and player depth, making it harder for one player to dominate and easier for teams to absorb replacements without catastrophic drops in performance.
Contrast this with basketball, where only five players are on the court, and the best player has the ball the majority of the time. The same concept happens with American football. The quarterback touches the ball every offensive play, thus impacting winning at a much higher clip than any other player on the field.
A 2014 study analyzed professional teams across basketball, football, and baseball to examine how the proportion of elite players affects win-loss records. The findings highlight why football (and basketball to an extent) limits individual dominance, whereas baseball, where teamwork is limited, has a positive winning impact with talent accumulation.
In football, top talent generally improves team performance. However, at a certain point, there are diminishing returns, and adding more stars can even hurt performance. Just look at what is happening at Liverpool right now.
In sports where teammates must coordinate heavily to succeed, too many high-status or star players may lead to teamwork issues. Another way of putting it is that there is only one ball to go around.
So, why does this matter in the case of players like Mainoo? Because team fit and coordination matter more than raw talent alone. Mainoo may be deserving of being on the field, but Amorim is prioritizing the system over his young talent (even if many disagree with it).
In football, talent isn’t always the only lever for success, especially on any given matchday. Great coaching, chemistry, tactics, and cohesion can be just as important. The baffling thing with Mainoo is that it appeared that he was developing into one of the next great England midfielders. Now, he’s not even in the conversation to make England’s World Cup squad.
The Rise of Kobbie Mainoo
Mainoo is a local boy. Born and raised in the Greater Manchester area. He was scouted by Manchester United and signed before he even hit double digits. In 2023, he was named the club’s young player of the year.
Mainoo made his senior team debut in the 2022/23 season, starting in a Carabao Cup win over Charlton. He appeared about a month later as a substitute in the Premier League in a victory against Leicester City. However, his breakthrough came in the 2023/24 season. He made 35 appearances across all competitions for Manchester United, starting all but three of those games. He scored five goals and had three assists, mainly from a CDM role. One of those goals came in the FA Cup Final against crosstown rival, Manchester City, which helped seal the win for United.
Mainoo was nominated for the Premier League Young Player of the Season award alongside Cole Palmer, Erling Haaland, Alexander Isak, Phil Foden, Bukayo Saka, William Saliba, and Destiny Udogie. He ended up losing out to Cole Palmer, but being among this group of names shows the type of class he had during his breakout season.
During the summer, he represented England at just 19 years of age at Euro 2024. He quickly earned playing time in the group stage matches and ended up starting throughout the knockout stages of the tournament. He set records for being among the youngest players to play for England in a major tournament, including starting in the final.
The 2024/25 club campaign started with Mainoo solidified as a key player at United. Having come off a deep Euro run in which he was a key piece of the England midfield, expectations were high. However, in early October, he was sidelined for almost two months with an injury. While recovering from his injury, Erik ten Hag was sacked, and Rúben Amorim was brought in as the new manager. After returning from injury, Mainoo slowly saw his minutes diminish until he was only playing sporadically off the bench by the end of the season.
At the time of publishing, we are now over three months into the 2025/26 season, and Mainoo has only recorded 177 minutes in eight Premier League games, all off the bench.
Despite his lack of playing time over the last year, he’s still in at least the 85th percentile for progressive carries, successful take-ons, touches in the penalty area, and progressive passes received among midfielders in the top five European leagues. Something that should be praised, given how difficult it is to get into a rhythm with inconsistent minutes.
The Rise of Rúben Amorim
Amorim retired from playing in 2017 and quickly stepped into management. He secured his first managerial job in 2018 for Casa Pia in Portugal’s third division. After defeats in his first two games as the manager, he almost quit, saying he wasn’t cut out for the job. After being convinced to stay, he changed his system to a back three, which has shaped his tactical thinking to this day. He ended up winning the third division and was promoted.
The next year, he joined Braga to coach its reserve side, but took over the first team after only a few months. Then, in March 2020, Sporting made Amorim one of the most expensive manager hires at the time, snatching him away from Braga. Amorim delivered by winning the league during his first full season in charge. By 2023/24, he delivered another league title, and there began to be rumblings of what he could do as a manager outside of Portugal.
Liverpool reportedly explored signing Amorim, but never agreed with his philosophy of playing with a back three. Additionally, it is reported that Amorim took part in talks with West Ham.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, a British billionaire and lifelong Manchester United fan, founded INEOS in 1998 as a chemicals and manufacturing giant. On December 24, 2023, Manchester United announced Ratcliffe’s £1.03 billion ($1.3 billion) deal for a 25% stake (later increased to 27.7% with additional investment), plus $300 million for infrastructure. The deal was ratified by the Premier League and FA and completed on February 20, 2024. This gave INEOS full oversight of sporting matters, including coaches, players, and recruitment.
Ultimately, after a poor start to the 2024/25 campaign, Manchester United was in search of a new manager. Amorim was their man for the job and was hired on November 1, 2024. A short six years after starting his coaching career, Amorim was now the man pulling the strings for arguably the second biggest club in the world.
INEOS has certainly made its mark in its short tenure in charge, targeting and signing Amorim. Ratcliffe praised Amorim as an “outstanding young manager“ and pledged three years to implement his vision, emphasizing patience over quick decisions.
Since taking over, INEOS has backed Amorim and made changes on the pitch. Players such as Rashford, Garnacho, Antony, and Hojlund all fell out of favor in Amorim’s new system. All have since left the club on either a permanent transfer or load and have found success elsewhere.
What’s Next for Mainoo
Despite some recent success, United still sits only 10th in the Premier League at the time of writing. It is clear that Amorim is in the good graces of INEOS for the time being. If it’s ever a choice between Mainoo (and the academy) or Amorim, Amorim is always going to win. Just look at the players who he has dumbed by the wayside.
Rumors are constantly swirling around Mainoo and whether he will be granted the loan he so desires. Who knows, the prospects of a transfer might be on the horizon soon too. I fully expect Amorim to continue to rebuild Manchester United in a way that better fits his system. Mainoo will probably be a casualty. But as I said back on August 30th, it’s likely for the best for his future.