‘BATTLE MACHINE’ – Kobbie Mainoo produces ‘Super Warrior’ performance with 100% tackles, 18 duels as Casemiro plays poorly in Man Utd’s defeat to Brighton

The first away trip of the season ended in frustration for Manchester United as the scoreline finished Brighton 2-1 United.

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VAR has played a role in the result, with two United goals being chalked off for offside. This included the highly debated Alejandro Garnacho goal which VAR ruled out for offside.

Ultimately the game was lost by fine margins and poor defending from United, with Rio Ferdinand believing that Harry Maguire would have prevented the loss.

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But despite the result, there are positives to take and Kobbie Mainoo was among those to impress as despite not being at his game-defining best, he has added some new qualities to his toolkit.

Often when praising Mainoo during his breakout campaign, it is his technical ability and on-ball skill which warrants superlatives.

But against Brighton, Mainoo showcased a different side to his game as he contributed heavily defensively – likely a lot more than he should need to with Casemiro being poor.

Due to this, he looked fatigued and United fans have even been criticising Mainoo after the defeat for a ‘lack of urgency’, but for much of the game, he did pretty well and proved he can hold his own in defensive midfield.

In this game, Mainoo has 40/44 Passing(91%), 63 Touches, 4/5 Dribbling,2/2 Tackles, 5 Interceptions, 6 Recoveries, 8/16 Duels won

As we can see from this, despite being dribbled past three times, Mainoo was very involved defensively and was successful quite a lot in the role he was playing.

Mainoo is not a defensive midfielder, but he has shown against Brighton that when called upon he can play that role. If Manuel Ugarte arrives, we imagine Mainoo will only improve how he contributes defensively as he will no longer be overexposed as he is with Casemiro.

While Mainoo did contribute defensively, he shouldn’t have had to.

Mainoo is an all-action number eight but the fact Casemiro is immobile means that he is called upon far too often defensively and almost deployed as a six himself, with Casemiro often further forward in attack.

Manchester United (@ManUtd) / X

Because Ugarte can cover the entire defensive midfield position by himself, signing him with United may be the finest thing that has happened to Mainoo and enable him to play as much more of a number eight.

With this move, Mainoo would be protected and able to concentrate on his on-ball skills and game-changing qualities, all the while maintaining his ability to assist defensively when needed.

We can have a far superior midfield combination versus Liverpool if the Ugarte transfer can hopefully be finalized shortly.

 

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