While the Premier League has had their fair share of deep-lying playmakers and registas, England as a nation have struggled to produce such profiles in their academies.
Manchester United’s Kobbie Mainoo could be exactly that: the Three Lions’ answers to pivots they had to import from the likes of La Liga for years.
This Kobbie Mainoo tactical analysis will give you a full scout report on the young midfielder.
We will use data and analysis to dissect Mainoo’s strengths and weaknesses and put them into the context of his club’s tactics.
So, is the hype real or should the Red Devils dose their excitement for now?
Kobbie Mainoo Scouting Report & Style Of Play
Kobbie Mainoo is a 19-year-old English midfielder currently playing for Manchester United in the Premier League.
Having accumulated over 2500 minutes of senior football across all competitions in the 2023/24 season, the world of football has started to notice a rising star in this talented youngster.
Standing at 175cm tall (5’9”) and weighing 65kg (143lbs), Mainoo has a shorter and stockier frame but is quite compact and agile as well.
The Englishman profiles as a deep-lying playmaker with excellent technical quality, control and carrying ability.
Statistically, it’s very difficult to fully appreciate the palette of his best attributes.
This is largely due to the dysfunctional structure of Erik Ten Hag’s Manchester United, their direct and low pass volume style of play, but also Mainoo’s youth and inexperience atƒ the highest level of English football.
So, while the following graph does help us identify some of the player’s obvious traits, it also needs a lot of context to give us the full picture.
Kobbie Mainoo Radar Map
That said, there are still aspects Mainoo clearly excels at.
For instance, the data tells us he is a volume dribbler, and the eye test confirms it; dribbling is indeed a clear weapon in the 19-year-old’s repertoire and one he uses both as a build-up tool and a big offensive skill in the final third and beyond.
However, passing is something we have to mention in this tactical analysis as well; Mainoo is an accurate passer of the ball and generally knows when and where to deploy his passes — for such a young player, this is highly impressive.
However, we need to emphasise that Mainoo can still fade out of games as he shies away from the ball or is simply too static in his reception, making it easier for the opposition to mark him, especially in more congested pockets of the pitch.
That can also be seen in his received passes stats, considering he only ranks around the 40th percentile among the players in his role.
Similarly, his incisive passing, while certainly playing a part, still needs a bit of polish.
But overall, he has a decent hand in goal contributions for Manchester United, hinting at a possible role higher up the pitch as well.
Defensively, Mainoo is efficient in winning his duels but can be caught out due to his lack of physicality in certain elements of his game; more on that later in this scout report.
Kobbie Mainoo Heatmap & Pass Map
The build-up phase is undoubtedly where Mainoo’s influence is felt the most.
The 19-year-old has an incredible reading of the game, and his football IQ, especially in the deep zones when progressing the ball and connecting the thirds, is impressive.
Positionally, we’re talking about a player who has a presence both deep and high but one who still likes to be the first receiver, helping the defenders evade pressure.
In that sense, as can be seen in this graph, Mainoo does a lot of what traditional pivots do; he retains the ball well as he’s press-resistant, and he can recycle possession until a progression path becomes clear.
The pass map also confirms this; Mainoo is a progression tool, but he is also a safe presence in the first phase when stabilising Manchester United’s possession with risk-averse passing when and if necessary.
However, the 19-year-old’s true value is in beating the press, on top of being a safe option for the backline to target.
Mainoo is adept at receiving the ball with back to goal, turning and then progressing either via a run or a pass.
The former action, however, seems to be exactly what Ten Hag had wanted from his arrival.
Mainoo is not necessarily a large-space eater; instead, he can be explosive in smaller spaces and will dominate his zone.
In that sense, in most cases, his zone of influence won’t be expansive.
Nevertheless, he will ask for the ball even with a man on his back and then use his dribbling to shake him off before turning into space to progress the play and combine with his teammates higher up the pitch.
These runs can either be followed up with a short-distance vertical pass or a more horizontal deployment if his team can still achieve progression eventually that way, as is the case in the picture on the left here.
It’s interesting that Mainoo doesn’t top any of the passing categories statistically, but as explained earlier in this tactical analysis, a lot of it is due to Manchester United’s tactics and their in-possession tendencies, which don’t necessarily add a lot of passing volume to their midfield.
The same is true for the 19-year-old’s progressive passing; even though the data analysis would suggest he’s not primary progressor material, the eye test still says he is press-resistant both through running/dribbling and passing.
Mainoo is comfortable receiving in tight spaces and can also pass his way out of them, as can be seen in the latest examples.
Even if he has a man or multiple markers right on top of him, the 19-year-old tends to find the right pass and choose the right target.
Generally, the weight, as well as the target selection, is on point in both his short and long distribution, albeit not as polished in the latter category.
The Englishman strikes the ball well and can deploy switches and through passes but we’re yet to see this fully utilised, at least at Manchester United.
The foundation is there but it remains to be seen how it develops.
Kobbie Mainoo Ball Progression
Back to his progression options, the following graph can give us more proof of the player being comfortable with both ways of achieving progression: passing (left) and running (right).
It’s an encouraging sign that a player so young is so comfortable dribbling out of pressure.
Ten Hag was looking for a Frenkie de Jong type of player for exactly that ability.
He ended up with a cheaper and younger variant — now, he has to develop himself properly.
Kobbie Mainoo Creativity In Final Third
Despite being primarily a player who heavily influences the first and the second phases of play, Mainoo is still a decent creator in his own right.
Of course, that is yet to translate to actual assists, but as with much of what he currently does, this has the potential to develop a lot in the coming years.
In 2023/24, his shot assists alone have accumulated 0.54 expected assists, most of which came from the right half-space and were targeted to the edge of the penalty area.
But if we take a look at his penalty area deliveries, we see they follow a similar pattern and seem to be angled from right to left, which makes sense considering Mainoo is right-footed and is often deployed on the right side of the midfield when playing in a double pivot.
One other thing these graphs confirm, however, is his attacking movement, particularly drifting wide and then utilising either some form of deep completions (a non-cross pass that is targeted to the zone within 20 metres of the opponent’s goal) or even crossing.
Still, being a player who thrives on the dribble, it doesn’t surprise Mainoo is adept at carrying the ball into the danger zones, even if he has to start deep.
Earlier in this tactical analysis, we’ve mentioned that the 19-year-old is not a big-space eater.
Generally, he prefers to carry the ball over short-to-medium distances, but if the space is there for the taking, he’s ready to shoulder that responsibility.
Something similar can be seen in the following example.
Mainoo is exceptionally good at keeping the ball under pressure and can use these half-turns to outmanoeuvre his markers and explode into space ahead.
In this particular example, he simply used his frame to shield the ball, making it impossible for the opposition player to tackle, and then proceeded to exploit the open space in front of him.
However, we have seen earlier in this scout report that he can and will create separations even when the marking is much tighter and the space less vacant.
It doesn’t surprise, then, that his best offensive actions come from the combination of these traits: dribbling/carrying and incisive passing.
Since Mainoo is also often positioned in pockets between the lines in the higher zones, these tools can be used to cut open defensive structures and put his teammates into favourable situations close to the opposition’s goal.
Take the following sequence as a good example of precisely that.
Mainoo’s reception of the ball is great, and it all starts with that; he receives the ball and uses a single touch to control and reposition himself to start the carry.
Once that’s done, he has the glide to quickly exploit the space ahead before positioning himself to deploy a structure-breaking pass into the box.
Of course, it has to be emphasised that this isn’t a regular sequence in Mainoo’s repertoire but rather an example of what he could be on a more regular basis.
That, however, depends on his physical development more than anything else.
He already has the technical quality to dominate small spaces, but his body hasn’t been built to dominate large areas or be extremely explosive yet.
That aspect of his player profile is also closely related to everything he does off the ball, too.
Kobbie Mainoo Out Of Possession Tactical Analysis
The final part of our scout report will deal with Mainoo’s off-the-ball tendencies and abilities — this part of his player profile is closely related to his physical attributes as well since they currently define the limits of his actions.
In other words, Mainoo, while boasting incredible reading of the game, which applies to both the analysis of his offensive and defensive repertoire, can only do as much as his body will allow at this particular point in his overall development.
This, of course, is true for everyone, young or old.
But looking at his defensive territory and high pressing in the following graphs, we can start to piece the puzzle of his defensive profile together.
Mainoo seems most active in the middle third of the pitch and comfortable dominating his zones.
While that means he can be a reliable small-space defender, it’s in a larger open area where he struggles the most.
Mainoo can be explosive when he has a small area to cover, and this is where most of his successful defensive actions come from; he starts around the middle third, and when he can successfully read the opposition’s play, that’s when he’s most useful in a defensive setup.
The 19-year-old has a decent tackling technique, but it does feel he can get unbalanced if he doesn’t time his arrivals well.
Once again, this circles back to our initial assessment that his defensive influence edges on how well he reads the opposition’s action.
Timing is everything.
The following examples demonstrate when this attribute is best utilised, and surprisingly, it seems to be in the higher areas and counter-pressing situations.
Looking at the numbers, Mainoo does seem to be a good shield ahead of the backline, offering protection at the entrance to the first third and in and around the penalty area.
That said, the numbers, despite, again, being heavily context-dependent and a part of a larger issue concerning Manchester United’s tactics, are not always too kind to the 19-year-old midfielder.
After crunching the data, we can see he’s won 16/26 (61%) defensive duels in zone 14 and 8/13 inside the penalty area (61%).
This is still a good return, especially considering he boasts an overall 69% success rate in defensive duels across his own third.
This confirms our initial statement that there is big potential for him to be that shield ahead of the backline in a defensive setup.
However, the issues we’ve alluded to come in the form of aerial duels, as can be seen in the images here.
Mainoo won 4/16 aerial duels (25%) in the penalty area and 5/14 in zone 14 (35.7%), meaning this is a clear and exploitable weakness in his defensive repertoire the opposition could be looking to use.
Conclusion
Kobbie Mainoo is an amazing talent.
Despite being just 19, he boasts football intelligence, technical quality, reading and understanding of the game that already eclipses many.
Not only that, but his pass selection and incredible dribbling capacity make him a force in all phases of play.
However, he is still a diamond in the rough, which is best seen in some of his defensive actions, especially his physical development.
A lot will depend on how he grows and learns to manipulate his frame.
The sky might be the limit, but Mainoo still has a ways to go before he reaches that.
Comments