Kobbie Mainoo is on a revenge mission since coming into the Man Utd XI, and what he did vs Spurs has now been hailed as a masterclass in the exact area Ruben Amorim criticised him for.
It’s becoming crystal clear by now that Ruben Amorim had misprofiled Kobbie Mainoo to an immense degree, and Man Utd almost suffered due to it.
Mainoo almost left in the summer, and he would have certainly left in January had Amorim still been in charge.
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It makes it all the more ridiculous that Mainoo has just produced a ‘masterclass’ in the exact area Amorim claimed was a problem with him.
Manuel Ugarte and Kobbie Mainoo of Manchester United in action during the Premier League match between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford on February 07, 2026
Photo by Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images
Alex Stepney hails Kobbie Mainoo’s ‘masterclass’
The four games under Carrick so far have been an exhibition for Mainoo to prove his doubters wrong by doing everything they thought he couldn’t do.
From eating up the ground like a seasoned box-to-box midfielder to putting in crunching tackles like a combative defender, he’s been a man on a mission.
Those are the things Amorim thought he couldn’t do, but there was something Amorim thought he did too much of, which he didn’t like.
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Mainoo’s range and style of passing frustrated Amorim in a deeper role, who preferred Bruno Fernandes to launch it long and quickly.
However, Mainoo has shown that you can quicken the tempo just as well by passing it short and crisply, something which caught the eye of United legend Alex Stepney after the game.
He wrote on X: “Short passing masterclass from Kobbie today, 20 yrs old !!”
It continues a series of compliments Mainoo has received of late, most recently getting compared to George Best, which is as tall a compliment as it comes for a Man Utd player.
In the process, it continues to look worse for the man who froze him out.
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It wouldn’t have been vindication for Amorim even if Mainoo hadn’t flown out of the blocks the moment he came into the starting XI.
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That’s because his talent has always been undeniable, but the performances since coming into the team have made Amorim look worse.
Carrick has unleashed exactly what Amorim profiled as Mainoo’s weakness, and unleashed it as his greatest strength.
If anything, Mainoo’s time out of the starting XI has made him a better player, as he has added physicality and combativeness to his game.
He has become a complete midfielder who is silky on the ball and combative off it, and he’s loving life doing exactly what Amorim criticised him for.
Vindication doesn’t come much bigger than that.
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