Mainoo

It’s one of the reasons Amrabat sounds good as cover for Casemiro.

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I wouldn't even mind Amrabat in place of Casemiro in certain games.

comment by The Red Side™ (U11275)
posted 37 minutes ago
I'm all for giving youth a chance but I think having both Hannibal and Mainoo in the six listed leaves us a bit short on experience if something happens to the starters. Happy to be proved wrong though!

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Experience isn't much good if those experienced players are short of quality, or in Fred's case, any semblance of consistency.

Hopefully we'll be able to sell all of McTominay, Fred and Van de Beek.

Casemiro, Amrabat, Mount, Eriksen, Mainoo, Bruno and Hannibal (although I think he'll go on loan) would give us more quality, variety and depth than we've had in midfield in a long time.
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I'd be more than happy with that.

It hasn't really worked for VDB and I think we've seen enough of McT and Fred to know they're not really good enough to get is where we want to be. I also don't think McT would want to be so low down the pecking order if he stayed either.

I think if we can get Amrabat for the price of McT and Fred then we'll have done OK. We could, at a push, make some money from those deals I suppose. Amrabat would also give us the opportunity to keep Casemiro fresh and manage his minutes.

I haven’t seen enough him to make a real judgement, but from yesterdays highlights he looked good in the ball and pretty composed. The PL is a huge step up in pace and intensity, let’s see, but it would be nice if he can make it onto the squad next season and get 15-10 appearances.

Whether we’re ‘monitoring’ the situation or close to bidding, it sounds like Amrabat is definitely easily attainable for around £30m or thereabouts.

Think we could tie this deal up pretty sharpish once Fred goes.

Whether we’re ‘monitoring’ the situation or close to bidding, it sounds like Amrabat is definitely easily attainable for around £30m or thereabouts.

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I think we're waiting to get Hojlund done or agreed at least and then we'll make our move for Amrabat, that's if a couple of people I follow are anything to go by because they've been very reliable this summer so far.

No idea about Mainoo and making assessments based on preseason is pretty much impossible. Saying that it’s always great to see a youth player given a chance and break into the first team so hopefully EtH trusts him enough and gives him that opportunity.

I was a little disappointed at the amount of minutes EtH gave youth last season but I guess it’s always gonna be tricky in your first season when you’re still figuring things out. I remember last summer and loads here we’re creaming themselves over Savage and Zidane, 12 months later they’ve been sold for a couple million and played zero minutes for us last season.

I guess Amrabat will all depend on whether we sell Fred and McTominay. Both seem to have interest but it’s probably about any of them being able to offer them wages they’ll agree to. Not tidally convinced about Amrabat, not that I’ve seen him but he was never spoken about before the WC and seems to be available for quite cheap with no one else seemingly interested.

comment by manutd1982 (U6633)
posted 23 minutes ago
No idea about Mainoo and making assessments based on preseason is pretty much impossible. Saying that it’s always great to see a youth player given a chance and break into the first team so hopefully EtH trusts him enough and gives him that opportunity.

I was a little disappointed at the amount of minutes EtH gave youth last season but I guess it’s always gonna be tricky in your first season when you’re still figuring things out. I remember last summer and loads here we’re creaming themselves over Savage and Zidane, 12 months later they’ve been sold for a couple million and played zero minutes for us last season.

I guess Amrabat will all depend on whether we sell Fred and McTominay. Both seem to have interest but it’s probably about any of them being able to offer them wages they’ll agree to. Not tidally convinced about Amrabat, not that I’ve seen him but he was never spoken about before the WC and seems to be available for quite cheap with no one else seemingly interested.
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I didn't really see the fuss over Savage last summer so I'll set him aside but the big difference between what Iqbal showed last summer versus Mainoo is the quality of the opposition. Mainoo has shone against Leeds, Lyon and Arsenal.

Iqbal's standout performance was against Melbourne Victory. He had some nice moments in a couple of other games but that was about it. He did look good though and I was surprised he didn't get a look in all season. Mainoo just seems to have a maturity to his game though that has obviously elevated him above his peers.

comment by manutd1982 (U6633)
posted 49 minutes ago
No idea about Mainoo and making assessments based on preseason is pretty much impossible. Saying that it’s always great to see a youth player given a chance and break into the first team so hopefully EtH trusts him enough and gives him that opportunity.

I was a little disappointed at the amount of minutes EtH gave youth last season but I guess it’s always gonna be tricky in your first season when you’re still figuring things out. I remember last summer and loads here we’re creaming themselves over Savage and Zidane, 12 months later they’ve been sold for a couple million and played zero minutes for us last season.

I guess Amrabat will all depend on whether we sell Fred and McTominay. Both seem to have interest but it’s probably about any of them being able to offer them wages they’ll agree to. Not tidally convinced about Amrabat, not that I’ve seen him but he was never spoken about before the WC and seems to be available for quite cheap with no one else seemingly interested.
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I'm in the same place. Iqbal was a standout last pre-season. How Mainoo got chances over him was one of those things I never understood. Mainoo looks a lot like Mount. I know what people like about him, but I don't think that type of football was our most need.

What Mainoo needs is a chance. I hope he gets one this time.

Iqbal and Savage while decent enough players at youth level, more so the former, weren't on Mainoo's level and now Mainoo's proving himself against better opposition than they did, a year younger than they did.

It may not count for anything but I think it was obvious who the more complete player out of the three was and who would have the best chance of actually making it in the first team.

I don’t watch our youth games or pre season so have absolutely no opinion on the kids that played. I was just pointing out that many were excited about those 2 last summer but that’s how it goes. As fans you get very excited about young players breaking into the first team and making it so many will big up youth at any opportunity. Hopefully Mainoo is different and gets the opportunity to show his talent, and I appreciate posters like TRS and Rosso have a far better idea of their ability but I do think we need to accept that the current state of our youth set up doesn’t compare to a team like City or Chelsea’s so it’s unlikely we’ll see a lot of top talent making the grade any time soon.