Mainoo misses Villa game with injury

Manchester United fans will be frustrated to learn that Kobbie Mainoo is unavailable for this afternoon’s game against Aston Villa due to injury.

With Casemiro suspended for the game, the suggestion had been that the academy graduate would make a rare start for United alongside Bruno Fernandes. However, thanks to a small injury picked up in training yesterday, the young midfielder is not in the squad.

Mainoo has courted a lot of attention in recent weeks with the media repeatedly pressing manager Ruben Amorim on the midfielder’s lack of playing time. In United’s last home game, the 4-4 draw with Bournemouth, Mainoo’s brother posted for pictures inside the ground wearing a “Free Kobbie Mainoo” t-shirt. Reports suggest the player had no idea about the stunt ahead of time and Amorim has confirmed he has no ill-feeling to the player in response.

Kobbie needs to fight for his job. I think that it’s not a bad thing to be on the bench of Manchester United when you are 20-years-old. I remember Ronaldo was on the bench, Rooney was on the bench sometimes, Veron was not playing.

I’m not trying to say to Kobbie, ‘you are a big player here, let’s put him on the bench to show something’. No, what I’m saying is the opposite. I’m just not putting Kobbie in sometimes because I understand that this is not the right guy to start the game. Maybe the next game, Sunday, he is going to start.

If he plays well, is going to show everyone ‘this guy cannot take me out of the team’, and I will be so happy. So I don’t care. I don’t want to show nothing to anyone. I’m just saying that I’m trying to win games and to show to the players that if you do the things right, you will play no matter what the name.

I had the situation in Sporting Lisbon. My brother wrote something on the internet, and I have to answer for that. My explanation is that he has his life, he has his opinion, and it’s nothing to do with me. So I will do the same with Kobbie. He’s responsible for his acts and his act was to play well in the last game, I’m just focused on that.

So let’s continue in trying to avoid the nonsense and the noise. I just want to want to help the team to win and to help Kobbie to be a better player.

The post Mainoo misses Villa game with injury first appeared on Republik Of Mancunia: A Manchester United Blog.