13 Jul 2025 16:19:29
Anyone else really worried about Kobbie Mainoo?

If Bruno is staying and playing as one of the two midfielders, Mainoo doesn't get a game, surely? Bruno will start every week and under no circumstances can they play together in a two.

We should be building a team around Mainoo, instead it would surprise me if he moved on.

1.) 13 Jul 2025
13 Jul 2025 16:51:49
He's still very young, needs an injury free season to back the levels he showd in his his season. I'm sure he will be a big player next season still for us.

2.) 13 Jul 2025
13 Jul 2025 17:24:03
If a bid comes in, he will be released, he lacks any pace and mobility not that great for what’s needed in midfield in epl.

3.) 13 Jul 2025
13 Jul 2025 17:31:33
German,

He won’t be ‘released’, he is staying at the club, your opinions are sometimes totally wild.

4.) 13 Jul 2025
13 Jul 2025 17:52:16
German that is a crazy opinion. Mainoo is working hard on his fitness during the break. Several reports suggest Amorim rates him highly but has expressed what he needs to work on. The key issue is whether his pace will increase with added fitness. But his ceiling is so high that I've no doubt he'll be staying.

5.) 13 Jul 2025
13 Jul 2025 18:23:31
Of course he will be staying, when we sign Mbeumo, we will still need another quality player for the 10s position.
You need 3 top players to cover that position and he can, of course, also play in midfield.
Released, indeed. I sometimes wonder if that is something that applies to you!

6.) 13 Jul 2025
13 Jul 2025 18:26:09
Wild idea for you. One Of Cunha or Mbuemo is rested, Bruno plays as a 10 and Mainoo plays deep. Possible?

7.) 13 Jul 2025
13 Jul 2025 20:01:44
Assuming mbeumo we currently have
Mbeumo cunha mount beuno mainoo amad zirkzee as no 10 options.
Imo amad will play mostly as a rwb
And Bruno will operate from deeper midfield position, which he did a lot last season.
For the deeper position in midfield as it stands I think ra will pick 2 from casimero colleyer ugarte bruno mainoo mount plus kids
Assuming bruno will play most weeks i think we need a very disciplined player alongside him.
Casimero lacks mobility and pace. Ugarte is weak in possession colleyer I've not seen much of and mainoo and bruno as a pair look a little weak to me defensively.
So I'm really hoping we go into the market for a mobile intelligent cm player to play with bruno.
Really only 1 game per week for the vast majority of the season.
Game time for a lot of players will be hard to come by.
Again assuming mbeumo and a cf come in they will need time to gel and understand each other's games. So it will be interesting to see who wins out.
I still reckon there will be a few more exits before the window closes outside of Anthony rashford garnacho malacia and sancho. I think there will be at least 2 or 3 more.

8.) 13 Jul 2025
13 Jul 2025 21:57:39
Mainoos best work is in attack. Absolute waste of his talent to play him further back.

9.) 14 Jul 2025
14 Jul 2025 02:31:10
I have a feeling that keeping Bruno will prove to be a huge mistake. He’s a top quality player, no doubt, but he lacks the discipline to play in a deeper position and will likely end up costing us a lot of goals over the coming season due to how often he gives the ball away in dangerous positions.

As OP points out, he also lacks the defensive attributes to play in a two man midfield unless the other midfielder is doing all of the heavy lifting, which pretty much forces us to line up with Bruno and Ugarte. I’m not sure Mainoo is the answer to our midfield problems (as others have said, he may be better suited to a more advanced role), but we’ll probably never get to find out with Bruno still at the club.

I just can’t wrap my head around the decision to keep a player only to then play him so drastically out of position, especially one whose value is going to start declining pretty quickly from here on out. The money he would have brought in would have gone a long way and made it so that our plans for the window weren’t so reliant on selling players who the club has made it very clear are not part of the manager’s plans (a fact that other clubs will no doubt exploit to get them at a fraction of their value) .

10.) 14 Jul 2025
14 Jul 2025 05:09:18
Bruno, really is the only real decent player we got, so not sure how on earth you can sell that player, everyone else yes, but it’s not even a debate because he did not want to go anyway, so Redseven your making an argument that does not even exist.
Many many players on the out list before it gets anywhere near Bruno.

{Ed077's Note - While other players at the club are struggling to get interest on them, Bruno was subject to crazy money offers. Does that not say something too?

11.) 14 Jul 2025
14 Jul 2025 06:10:18
Exactly Ed, the red tints are getting stronger by the day, virtually every player at United is available and no offers incoming for them, but still people think that we have some great players, people still think Martinez is great CB……. Some even saying Mainoo is going to be world class, but then they were the same people that a year ago were saying Garnacho is the new Ronaldo! How that turn out!
Some want Zirkee as our number 9 and a rookie in goal, our standards are getting lower than a snakes belly….
Yet some still think we have great players, apart from Bruno, not one of our squad would get into any of the potential top 4, even include Cunha and the supposedly arriving Mbeumo in that…… and some now saying we should have got rid of our only player that would break into those sides
Unbelievable.

12.) 14 Jul 2025
14 Jul 2025 09:50:11
Pretty sure both Cunha and Mbeumo would get plenty of games for any of the top 4 sides, but they all have comparable players… which is why they are top 4. But we a few rungs below them in other departments.

13.) 14 Jul 2025
14 Jul 2025 11:34:25
If the plan was always to spend £120m+ on two players who play in Bruno’s best position when we are in desperate need of a striker, defensive midfielder, and goalkeeper and seemingly lack the funds to buy them, then yeah. We probably should have cashed in when we had the chance.

He’s our best player at the moment, but at the start of next season when he’s 32 and has just had the worst season of his career because he was forced to play in a position that he’s not at all suited to, I very much doubt anybody will think that keeping him was a good idea.

14.) 14 Jul 2025
14 Jul 2025 12:25:36
Redseven - what are you judging last season on? statistically speaking that was his 2nd most productive season he in a Man utd Kit.

24-25 - 19 goals 19 assists
23/ 24 - 15 goals 13 assists
22/ 23 - 14 goals 15 assists
21/ 22 - 10 goals 14 assists
20/ 21 - 28 goals 17 assists.

15.) 14 Jul 2025
14 Jul 2025 14:32:53
Redseven you are overlooking he did not want to go
You are also overlooking the facts and making it up about being his worst season!
Oh yeah maybe Cunha or Mbeumo dislodge Salah for Liverpool too or Saka for Arsenal or could take Halaands place at City
So I repeat…None of our players get into any the top 4 teams that includes Cunha or the unsigned Mbeumo.

16.) 14 Jul 2025
14 Jul 2025 15:02:35
German. If we play him in one of the two central midfield roles I think it’s very likely that he will have a terrible season (hence, this time next year, he will have just come off the back of his worst season for us) .

17.) 14 Jul 2025
14 Jul 2025 15:49:56
That’s a bit of a wild wet finger in the air prediction though Redseven and totally a guess, you can’t go selling your best player and like I said he did not want to go anyway, so it’s irrelevant anyway.
We got a bad enough squad as it is, you don’t go getting rid of the best goalscorer we currently have either.
Plus he hardly ever misses a game, he hardly ever injured and he runs more than most of our players
So you take 19 goals and 19 assist out the team on the understanding he might have his worst season next year! And replace him with what Or whom?

18.) 15 Jul 2025
15 Jul 2025 15:44:22
But you take most of those goals and assists out of the team anyway by playing him out of position, while also conceding a boatload more because of how often he misplaces passes or goes down easy under challenges (which will be a lot more dangerous when he’s in one of those deeper midfield positions) .

I’d usually agree with your assertion that you shouldn’t sell your best player, but then would counter it by saying that you shouldn’t sign two players who play in your best player’s position and then play your best player out of position just to accommodate them.