Where’s Kobbie Mainoo? Amorim ‘fighting’ talk and Ferdinand ‘system’ theory

Kobbie Mainoo has not played a single minute for Manchester United this season. Why?

The Manchester United midfielder remained on the bench throughout their 1-1 draw with Fulham on Sunday while Diogo Dalot, Benjamin Sesko, Manuel Ugarte, Ayden Heaven and Harry Maguire were all called upon to turn the game around.

As we said elsewhere, Ruben Amorim wasted Arsenal goodwill immediately as Manchester United sacrificed everything for nothing.

Amorim was obviously asked why he had not used Mainoo in either of his team’s first two matches – the narrow defeat at home to Arsenal or the away draw with Fulham.

“No, he is fighting for the position now with Bruno (Fernandes),” said Amorim, giving Mainoo the impossible task of replacing his captain.

“And I changed two midfielders. I like Mason Mount there because we want to score a goal. And then when I change it, I felt that the team needed to return to one holding midfielder.

“So he (Mainoo) just needs to fight for the position with Bruno in training. Like it should be at Manchester United.”

The problem with that situation is obvious: Amorim is never going to take off Fernandes, even when he can see he is struggling.

Fernandes missed a penalty against Fulham and Amorim admitted after the game: “I think he is not used to missing penalties. He knows the importance that this moment can have [and make a] huge impact on the team.

“During the game he was not happy because he was not involved and he has so much responsibility and I think he thought missing the penalty was huge for us.”

And yet Mainoo still did not come off the bench to replace Mainoo, suggesting he is not “fighting” hard enough in training.

Former Manchester United player, pundit and tireless self-promoter Rio Ferdinand has his own theory about Mainoo being sidelined.

He said on his own YouTube channel: “I think he’s the type of player, I think he’s got the talent to build around, but you’ve got to have the team functioning and playing in a particular way.

“I had a debate – there are some players who need the system to be able to perform. There’s some great players we’ve got in this country right now, I’ll go through a few of them, I think Kobbie Mainoo needs a system to play in.

“I think Phil Foden needs a system to play in, I think for them to play to their optimum best.

“Cole Palmer can go anywhere I think and go and play and be Cole Palmer – there’s certain players who are just going to do what they do.”