After falling out of favour under Ruben Amorim, Kobbie Mainoo has now cemented himself as one of Manchester United‘s most important players.

Mainoo enjoyed a breakthrough season at United in 2023-24, which concluded with him scoring the winning goal in the FA Cup final and starting for England in the Euro 2024 final.

But his fortunes took a drastic turn following Erik Ten Hag’s dismissal and the arrival of Amorim in November 2024.

Amorim implemented his favoured 3-4-2-1 formation, and dropped Mainoo in favour of a double pivot of Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro.

“Kobbie is really good at controlling the game, but if he plays as an eight he has to reach the box and return,” Amorim said. “Sometimes he has to cover a lot of space with just two [players].

“He could play as a six, but sometimes he passes the ball and goes away, which is not a reference as a six.

“We have to balance everything. He has the technical ability but he needs to understand the position better. He needs to play in different speeds – sometimes lower, sometimes faster. He can improve on that.”

He didn’t start a single Premier League game under Amorim in the first half of last season and may have left the club in the January transfer window if the Portuguese head coach hadn’t been sacked.

Michael Carrick’s arrival saw United revert to a back four formation and Mainoo was immediately brought back into the side, impressing in a 2-0 win over Manchester City.

He’s now started in all but two of their 19 Premier League games since Carrick’s appointment, with United losing 2-1 at home to Leeds and 2-0 away to Hull City in those games.

The 21-year-old partnered Youri Tielemans against Ipswich Town and produced a brilliant performance as United came from behind to win 5-2 at Old Trafford.

“I understand Bruno will get a lot of credit today, and he deserves that as well, but I thought Kobbie was immense in the middle of the pitch for us and underpinned the performance of the team,” Carrick said after the game.

Here’s how United’s Premier League stats with and without Mainoo stack up since the start of the 2025-26 season.

Games: 17 Won: 13 Drawn: 3 Lost: 1

Goals for: 37 Goals per game: 2.17 Goals against: 18 Goals against per game: 1.05

Points per game: 2.47 Win percentage: 76.4% Loss percentage: 5.8%

Games: 23 Won: 8 Drawn: 8 Lost: 7

Goals for: 37 Goals per game: 1.6 Goals against: 36 Goals against per game: 1.56

Points per game: 1.39 Win percentage: 34.7% Loss percentage: 30.4%

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