The Premier League players who grabbed their Carabao chance, including Amorim’s arch-nemesis
Kobbie Mainoo struck in his culture war with Ruben Amorim, even if Manchester United seem intent on backing a struggling manager and his incompatible system.
The League Cup second round is over, the weird draw for the third round has been made and the majority of players brought in can be expected to rotate back out again when the Premier League returns at the weekend.
But some stated their case to keep their place by taking that Carabao chance. Others completely messed up and that is on them.
Harrison Reed (Fulham)
From a second-minute overhead kick onwards, there was never a sense that Reed was going to let his first appearance of the season – and first start since February – go by without incident.
The midfielder did not start a single Premier League game in 2024/25 due to injury and form but is still trusted by Marco Silva and showed why across 90 quietly efficient minutes.
A clever corner to set up Raul Jimenez’s goal in probably the most secure midfield partnership imaginable alongside Tom Cairney was just reward, although it inevitably did not stop Silva pleading for new signings once more after the game.
They are stuck in a difficult transfer spot.
Stefanos Tzimas (Brighton)
There is an inherent irony in the youngest manager in Premier League history not wanting to rush through the development of an inexperienced player.
Fabian Hurzeler is not wrong to take his time with the pair of teenage Greek strikers bestowed upon him for £50m or so this year, but the longer their Premier League goal problems continue the more glaring that dichotomy will become.
“There are different demands in a Premier League game than the game today,” he pointed out after Tzimas’ two goals helped dispatch Oxford in a 6-0 thrashing.
“He came into a game where it was already 3-0 so it’s not the intensity you can expect in a Premier League game,” Hurzeler added.
But Tzimas, a £20.8m January signing who spent the rest of the season on loan at Nuremberg, is “closer” to a proper first-team breakthrough, even if Hurzeler will not budge from taking things “step by step”.
Kobbie Mainoo (Manchester United)
Perhaps Manchester United should go all 2000 FA Cup and withdraw from the League Cup the next time they’re consigned to the second round, even if that means facing the ire of Caprice, Darren Day and Falklands hero Simon Weston.
It’s clearly more trouble than it’s worth, with managers “getting sacked in the morning” and all players involved being tainted to the point of either never featuring again or immediately sold.
Mainoo tried his utmost to keep the Grimsby stink off him and in truth his performance was nothing close to special. The England international was competent but in this curious ongoing culture war with the entirely inept Ruben Amorim, that was enough to strike another blow.
The assist for Bryan Mbeumo’s goal was good and his penalty among the many converted, but Amorim’s bizarre stance on the future of a gifted Manchester United academy product – and the club’s inexplicable decision to back a drowning manager and his incompatible system over said player – meant the result was a personal win for Mainoo in any case.
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Harrison Armstrong (Everton)
There might well have been designs on sending Armstrong out for a second loan after the success of his half-season spell at Derby. And having taken to the Championship so seamlessly at 18, his performance against League One opposition perhaps should not surprise.
But there is reason to believe that Armstrong is better off being kept on Merseyside and nurtured instead of being sent elsewhere.
Everton have depth in midfield but not so much as to completely stifle a promising teenager’s opportunities. A cup run – although such a thing is never guaranteed for the Toffees – and controlled drip-feed of Premier League minutes could be more beneficial than another few months elsewhere.
And the level of technical quality in that squad could see him thrive. Only Dwight McNeil has more assists for Everton since the start of last season than Armstrong, whose three have come in 273 minutes.
Jackson Tchatchoua (Wolves)
The late strike partnership of Jorgen Strand Larsen and Sasa Kalajdzic could either feed generations or cost an increasingly panicky Newcastle a small fortune, but any big lad is nothing without the right service.
Tchatchoua provided it more effectively than anyone in his 20 minutes on the Molineux pitch. A sublime touch out of the sky preceded Strand Larsen’s first and the cross for the second to complete the comeback was stunning.
It might seem a little rudimentary to run really fast and put the ball in the box but it is an approach worth trying for Wolves, who remain without a goal in the Premier League this season.
One of their genuinely impressive number of £10m-£20m signings could well provide a solution and Tchatchoua guaranteed that his opportunity will come soon.
Kyle Walker-Peters (West Ham)
It could be suggested that Graham Potter has a couple of questions more pressing than picking which double-barrelled right-back he prefers in any given week. When, for example, should he kick off his out-of-work podcast rounds with some High Performance across from Jake Humphrey?
But it might be time to try something different if indeed he is afforded the chance. Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s performance against Chelsea basically demanded it.
Walker-Peters would have had to excavate to the centre of the Earth to retrieve the bar set by that display and being absolutely fine – lovely assist, mind – even in defeat was a considerable improvement.
Frank Onyeka (Brentford)
It is bizarre to think of Onyeka as the first signing Brentford made upon securing Premier League promotion, such have been his struggles in making a wider impact in west London.
The midfielder started almost as many games on loan to Augsburg last season (33) as he has in the other three years spent waiting at a bus stop in Hounslow (38).
But the fresh start for everyone under Keith Andrews stirred Onyeka into action with a fine showing and assist against Bournemouth. Frank the Tank’s first appearance for Brentford since last August at the same stage of the Carabao was productive.
Hakon Valdimarsson and Fabio Carvalho were among those to stake their claims too, but Onyeka’s case was the most compelling.
Julio Soler (Bournemouth)
Andoni Iraola “liked his character” and felt Soler was “one of the positives we can take today”.
The Bournemouth manager also highlighted the additional threat the left-back managed, saying “it was not an easy game at the end, with Dango being fresh in the last minutes” while avoiding any and all temptation to refer to his former forward as unchained, so fair play.
Soler was accomplished enough in only his sixth appearance for the club since joining in January. It will do him no harm to sit under the Adrien Truffert learning tree at left-back.
Loum Tchaouna (Burnley)
The local media had Tchaouna down as ‘Burnley’s bright spark’ in their player ratings and it would be foolish to argue.
A summer signing from Lazio, the forward has made substitute cameos in both the club’s first two games of the season but a shuffle of the pack from Scott Parker should see Tchaouna given a start soon.
He will be one of many in claret positively giddy at the chance to play Manchester United in their current guise this weekend.
Marc Guiu (Sunderland)
Sunderland quite cleverly buried their defeat to lower-league opposition in a solid midweek for Carabao upsets, exiting the competition at the earliest possible round for the third season in succession.
Combined with the defeat to Burnley, it might leave Regis Le Bris considering a permanent rejig of his promoted pack, which could in turn grant one of Chelsea’s great many undesirables a shop window in which to prove his worth.
It has left Guiu with a fearsome record of a goal every 53.7 minutes in the League Cup and Conference League and knowing Chelsea they can probably spin £20m or so out of that next summer.
Lukas Nmecha (Leeds United)
After his match-winning penalty against Everton, Daniel Farke said Nmecha had “paid everything back – but we didn’t pay for him!”.
The manager also admitted he almost intervened to prevent the German from taking it as he “he needed more touches” having only just come on.
Considering the quality of spot kicks taken without Nmecha in the shoot-out defeat to Sheffield Wednesday, Farke might wish he had stepped in to stop any or all of Joel Piroe, Dominic Calvert-Lewin or Sean Longstaff.
Even during the game it was Nmecha who looked more natural and comfortable leading the line with some solid touches and hold-up play.
No-one can emerge from such a demoralising evening with credit, but Nmecha was one of the few who couldn’t really be tarred with much blame either.
