Manchester United came out on the losing side against Brighton on Saturday.
The first away trip of the season ended in frustration for Manchester United as the scoreline finished Brighton 2-1 United.
VAR has played a role in the result, with two United goals being chalked off for offside. This included the highly debated Alejandro Garnacho goal which VAR ruled out for offside.
Ultimately the game was lost by fine margins and poor defending from United, with Rio Ferdinand believing that Harry Maguire would have prevented the loss.
But despite the result, there are positives to take and Kobbie Mainoo was among those to impress as despite not being at his game-defining best, he has added some new qualities to his toolkit.
Kobbie Mainoo will have impressed Erik ten Hag off the ball
Often when praising Mainoo during his breakout campaign, it is his technical ability and on-ball skill which warrants superlatives.
But against Brighton, Mainoo showcased a different side to his game as he contributed heavily defensively – likely a lot more than he should need to with Casemiro being poor.
Due to this, he looked fatigued and United fans have even been criticising Mainoo after the defeat for a ‘lack of urgency’, but for much of the game, he did pretty well and proved he can hold his own in defensive midfield.
| Stats | Number |
| Passing | 40/44 (91%) |
| Touches | 63 |
| Dribbling | 4/5 (80%) |
| Tackles | 2/2 (100%) |
| Interceptions | 5 |
| Defensive actions | 9 |
| Recoveries | 6 |
| Duels | 8/16 (50%) |
As we can see from this, despite being dribbled past three times, Mainoo was very involved defensively and was successful quite a lot in the role he was playing.
Mainoo is not a defensive midfielder, but he has shown against Brighton that when called upon he can play that role. If Manuel Ugarte arrives, we imagine Mainoo will only improve how he contributes defensively as he will no longer be overexposed as he is with Casemiro.
Manchester United need to protect No.37 by signing Manuel Ugarte
While Mainoo did contribute defensively, he shouldn’t have had to.
Mainoo is an all-action number eight but the fact Casemiro is immobile means that he is called upon far too often defensively and almost deployed as a six himself, with Casemiro often further forward in attack.
Therefore United signing Ugarte could be the best thing to happen to Mainoo and it could allow him to play as much more of a number eight – considering Ugarte is capable of patrolling the whole defensive midfield position on his own.
This move would protect Mainoo and see that he is able to focus on his on-the-ball abilities and impacting games – while still having the quality to contribute in defence when required.
Hopefully, the deal for Ugarte can be wrapped up pretty soon, and then against Liverpool, we can have a far better midfield pairing.
from United In Focus https://ift.tt/vzID5y4