Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim has framed his handling of Kobbie Mainoo around squad balance and the wider fortunes of several academy graduates. Amorim said his 3-4-2-1 formation does not play to Mainoo\u2019s natural strengths and pointed to recent examples among the club’s youngsters to explain limited minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Collyer] is from the academy, he played here, went to West Bromwich [Albion] and he\u2019s not playing,\u201d Amorim highlighted. \u201cHe played for Manchester United, so sometimes it\u2019s not because he\u2019s from the academy or whatever. It\u2019s the situation that’s happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amorim added that opportunities are decided by training and match performance. \u201cThe door is open for any player to change my mind. But in the end, it\u2019s going to be the training, the games. Of course, he\u2019s not playing so many games, but Kobbs, he had opportunities, especially last year. Everyone had [opportunities]. Especially last year, everyone has.<\/p>\n
“Amass is now struggling in the Championship. Chido is not always a starter in U21s. All these guys played when a lot of people were saying, \u2018Sack the manager.\u2019 You can see that I\u2019m not worried. I just look at the team and try to win the next game. I will do that until the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mainoo was reportedly open to a loan move in the summer but the club declined the request. Amorim said there have been no winter-exit talks to date and stressed communication with the player would be welcomed. \u201cFirst of all, the team comes first,\u201d Amorim vowed. \u201cIf Kobbie comes to me and talks to me, I will talk to him.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m not going to say what I\u2019m going to say to Kobbie, but I will be really pleased if Kobbie is coming to talk to me about that. I just want my players [to be] happy and understand that every individual has their goals. The frustration doesn\u2019t help anybody.<\/p>\n
“I had some conversations with him, especially last year, and with other players, but about that subject, no, I didn\u2019t speak with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amorim acknowledged the broader context: Mainoo is one of few senior academy representatives after the summer departures of Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho, with an 88-year run of including a graduate in matchday squads at risk. The manager has admitted concern about ending that streak and The Telegraph note some inside United have concerns about how Mainoo has been handled. \u201cOf course [I rate Mainoo], like everyone else,\u201d Amorim insisted. \u201cThe problem is we are playing with two [midfielders] and you guys see Kobbie in a different way than I\u2019m seeing.<\/p>\n
“Maybe if you play with three midfielders, not with just two, Kobbie will have more minutes. Imagine that this happens. Someone in front is going to lose their spot. Sometimes it\u2019s just the moment.<\/p>\n
“I think I proved that if you change my mind [you can get into the team]. Casemiro is the biggest example. He was behind Toby and now he is a starter.<\/p>\n
“Kobbs is one more player that I understand all the interests. I understand how important it is. The hopes that you guys and English guys have. I also just want to win. If he\u2019s the right guy, I will put him in. No problem.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Amorim defended Mainoo’s minutes, pointing to academy struggles and formation constraints. Throughout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,969],"tags":[1021,1041,1304],"class_list":["post-5109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","tag-amorim","tag-amorim-concerns","tag-benching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}