Michael Carrick has publicly defended Kobbie Mainoo\u2019s versatility and warned against simple labels after the midfielder\u2019s limited role under Ruben Amorim. Carrick says the academy graduate had been unfairly narrowed into a single function, and the interim manager has adjusted the team shape to give Mainoo a fuller role.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the way Kobbie takes the ball,\u201d Carrick told Sky Sports . \u201cI think that\u2019s a big part of being a footballer, and being a top player is being able to cope with the environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s come in at such a young age and played some big games in the Euros for England and for Manchester United and playing a big part in those games. So just being able to cope, first off, is a huge thing and he\u2019s proved he can cope.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe takes the ball, he drifts, he can play, he can play a little bit deeper at times, he can play a little bit higher up depending on who he\u2019s playing with.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think sometimes we can pigeonhole players in certain things quite quickly and it\u2019s not always the case. Sometimes you see things in a player and you tweak it a little bit, a bit like Patrick [Dorgu] playing a little bit higher. All of a sudden, things open up.<\/p>\n
\u201cKobbie can play different roles within that, but definitely with Casemiro in the middle of the last couple of games we\u2019ve had a really good pairing. They\u2019ve been a big part of controlling the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amorim faced plenty of criticism during his time as United manager, primarily relating to his commitment to a 3-4-2-1 formation. Behind that, his use of Mainoo was the top concern among fans. Mainoo was limited by the reduced number of midfield places in that system and by Amorim\u2019s view of him as emergency cover for Bruno Fernandes, who was given a deeper role.<\/p>\n
Statistical record (all competitions): appearances 40; starts 16; goals 2; assists 2; total minutes 1,747; minutes per appearance 43.7.<\/p>\n
Since Carrick replaced Amorim, Fernandes has been returned to a more attacking role in a 4-2-3-1 and a midfield pivot place has opened. Mainoo has taken that chance, earning two starts under Carrick and beginning to demonstrate the all-round role the manager described. The manager\u2019s tactical adjustment has given Mainoo a clearer pathway to regular midfield responsibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carrick says Mainoo was pigeonholed under Amorim and now has fresh opportunities in midfield Update<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6358,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1348,172],"tags":[1021,342,939],"class_list":["post-6359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-manchester-united-news","category-epl","tag-amorim","tag-bruno-fernandes","tag-casemiro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6359","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=6359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}