Michael Carrick says Kobbie Mainoo\u2019s return to form at Manchester United has required little formal coaching and more space to regain match rhythm. Carrick outlined a long association with the midfielder, noting their early contact and intermittent involvement during his first spell at the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve known Kobbie a long time,\u201d he told BBC Sport. \u201cI started working with him when I think he was 13 or 14, when I was starting to do my coaching badges\u2014a good few years ago. Just little bits.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then, obviously, when I was here the first time, he was in and around a little bit. So I think knowing him and having experience with him and seeing him perform at such a level on such big occasions<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat Kobbie\u2019s done at such a young age is quite incredible really. We forget how young he still is. I was just a big fan of watching him play and knowing what he was capable of. So it wasn\u2019t really a big decision to play him. And, to be fair, it\u2019s not easy when you haven\u2019t played to find your rhythm and find your form.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carrick has moved away from the previous three-at-the-back approach and set the team up in a 4-2-3-1. That alteration pushed Bruno Fernandes further forward and created a role at the base of midfield that Mainoo has taken. The change has coincided with a clear uptick in involvement: Mainoo has played every minute of Carrick\u2019s first five games, with five appearances, five starts and 449 minutes, registering two assists.<\/p>\n
Statistically, across other appearances he has 40, starts 16, minutes 1,747, goals 2 and assists 2. Under Erik ten Hag, 38 of his 44 appearances came as a starter.<\/p>\n
Carrick said he has limited his input to minor corrections. \u201cThere are things he can get better at, things he can improve on, but we haven\u2019t really got started on any of that because we\u2019re just letting him go and find his flow and find his rhythm of playing football again,\u201d Carrick continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been really conscious of not giving him an awful lot\u2014a couple of little pointers, a bit of positional things and some little bits here and there\u2014but trust in what he is. He\u2019s a fantastic footballer and he\u2019s got a huge talent.\u201d<\/p>\n
By contrast, Amorim stuck to a 3-4-2-1 and often preferred Fernandes in that shape. \u201cI just want to win,\u201d Amorim said towards the end of his United tenure. \u201cI don\u2019t look [at] who it is, I don\u2019t care about that, I\u2019m just trying to put the best players on the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mainoo must now sustain his place and form as the Carrick era develops and decisions are taken ahead of next season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carrick says a tactical switch and trust, not heavy coaching, have revived Mainoo’s United role Now<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6975,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,969],"tags":[1021,342,1087],"class_list":["post-6976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","tag-amorim","tag-bruno-fernandes","tag-coaching-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6976","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=6976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}