Bruno Fernandes & Erik ten Hag in agreement over Kobbie Mainoo verdict
- Kobbie Mainoo impressed in pre-season before suffering an injury
- Teenage midfielder excelled in first appearance of the campaign against Everton
- Fernandes & Ten Hag among those impressed by Mainoo's performance
By Tom Gott
Bruno Fernandes and Erik ten Hag have both hailed the performance of teenage midfielder Kobbie Mainoo in Manchester United's 3-0 victory over Everton.
While fellow youngster Alejandro Garnacho stole the headlines with an outrageous overhead kick to open the scoring in Sunday's win, fans were left equally impressed by Mainoo, who first caught the eye in pre-season before suffering a nasty ankle injury that ruled him out for several months.
The 18-year-old made it back to the bench in recent weeks but was thrown into the starting lineup against Everton for his first outing of the season. What's more, despite his age, Mainoo did not look out of place as he pulled the strings at the base of Ten Hag's midfield.
"For me, he is the man of the match," Fernandes said after the game. "He put in a great performance. He is comfortable with the ball and never makes a mistake.
"For his age, he has so much qualities. He sees things before others."
Ten Hag was equally impressed, adding: "He has a lot of abilities and it was a really disappointing moment in pre-season when he got so badly injured, for him but also for our team, because I know he can progress a lot if he plays many of such games as today.
"I know young players will develop very quickly and we thought it was the moment to bring him in. We prepared him properly but he did a great job and now he has to build on this."
United great Roy Keane was eager to avoid getting caught up in the excitement but admitted the "outstanding" Mainoo appears set for a bright future with the Red Devils.
"Unbelievable," he said of Mainoo's performance during Sky Sports' coverage of the game. "We don't want to get too carried away but I'm sure we will.
"He looked like he always had time on the ball today, his decision-making, in terms of when to go long when to go short, in terms of off the ball as well. What an all-round performance.
"The club obviously think highly of him. With the build-up to the game today, coming to Everton, for the manager to put him in, he and the staff around the place obviously must trust him.
"Good luck to the kid. He was outstanding. It's a great start for him. Let's hope he stays injury-free and gets a run of games for Man Utd because he looked a Man Utd type of player. Nice and brave, lots of courage. I loved watching him."
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