It was more than a season-and-a-half-ago that Paul Scholes watched another tame Manchester United performance and took to social media to articulate his frustrations.
‘Midfielders, it’s all about body shape when receiving the ball,’ Scholes wrote.
‘Too many times [they are] facing their own goal and can only play one way.
‘Get on the “half turn” and bring your forward more talented players into the game’.
It seemed like sensible advice from one who knows and, deep in to season 2023-24, it seems as though an answer to the question has walked out of the dark to offer a solution to one problem at United and another one for England.
Paul Scholes has called for midfielders to play on the half turn to bring forwards into the game
Kobbie Mainoo has shown he can do that, and he is exactly what England need in midfield
Kobbie Mainoo is only 18 but United’s need has been deep and so, it seems, is his talent. Already the teenager sits front and central of anything that is remotely good at Old Trafford.
With England, it’s a little different. Manager Gareth Southgate is not short of technically gifted players.
When he looks at his squad, ball players lurk in every corner. What he does really need, though, is a player to work off Tuesday night’s captain Declan Rice in the centre of midfield.
Kalvin Phillips has gone backwards at Manchester City and now West Ham while Jordan Henderson was once the answer to the problem but is not any longer.
So Mainoo’s shooting star trajectory has been welcome. He didn’t make his first Premier League start until the end of November and was without a goal until the end of January.
But now he is an England player – a 75th-minute substitute against Brazil at the weekend and a starter on Tuesday night – and, it would seem, a very likely inclusion for Southgate’s party for the European Championships this summer in Germany.
Kalvin Phillips has gone backwards at West Ham to fall out of international contention
Jordan Henderson is no longer the solution as he moves into the latter stages of his career
Mainoo’s rise has been rapid, but he is continuing to prove that he is ready for the big occasion
If that all sounds as though it has happened rather quickly that’s because it has. But that doesn’t mean it’s happened too quickly. If Southgate is going to pick on form and talent and influence – rather than purely out of loyalty – then Mainoo definitely gets in the squad and in all likelihood in the team when England play Serbia in Gelsenkirchen on June 16.
Here, he was perhaps their best player until he was substituted – probably under agreement with Erik ten Hag at United – with 20 minutes to go. He ticks all those boxes outlined so tersely by Scholes in the August of 2022 and probably a few more.
Indeed his first real influence on the game was a profound one and played to Scholes’ point.
England had started badly and conceded a dreadful goal as their makeshift defence creaked and groaned under the pressure of some early Belgian cohesion.
So England were in need of something when the ball came to Mainoo in centre field and a drop of the shoulder immediately gave him space in which he could work. From then on it was simple. A look up saw Jude Bellingham running in to space ahead of him and the pass to find him was simple. From there the ball was shifted on a further five yards to Ivan Toney and an important penalty was won and then scored.
And this is what separates decent midfield players from the very good ones. This is the Scholes thesis. It’s the ability to function in that most congested of areas with a complete sense of time, space and awareness.
Can it be taught? Perhaps to a degree. All players can be encouraged to get their heads up more often.
But then there are those who just seem to be able to do it. To view things almost in slow motion when in reality all that surrounds them is really rather frenetic. To see space, choose passes and movements and then to execute them.
Mainoo was arguably England’s best player before he was substituted, and he received a warm embrace from Gareth Southgate
This is what Mainoo does. He moves the ball quickly and freely and accurately. He keeps the ball rolling and links passages of play and, perhaps most importantly, moves possession forwards more often than he does not.
At this early stage, he seems a good foil for Rice and all that he appears to lack at this stage is experience. He may well be able to use that to his advantage. Experience of what? Failure and narrow squeaks and disappointment? How important is that anyway?
Rice, now with 50 caps, is a different type of central player. The Arsenal midfielder likes to play with space in front of him. He likes to be able to see play develop, to move with the ball and play longer passes into the space ahead.
Mainoo, at this early stage of his career, is comfortable in tight spots. He wants the ball and isn’t fond of wasting it. In the 33rd minute here he was sharp enough to anticipate a dumb pass from Belgian goalkeeper Matz Sels in to the feet of Amadou Onana on the edge of his own penalty area.
Mainoo was in to Onana in an instant, hustling him out of possession with a sharp challenge that presented Bellingham with an easy chance that he somehow hoisted over the crossbar.
That was a rare misstep from Bellingham who was to make amends at the death. Indeed at this stage he looks the most likely beneficiary of Mainoo’s emergence.
Mainoo worked well with Declan Rice, who likes to play with space ahead of him
Mainoo also linked up nicely with Jude Bellingham, and the Real Madrid star went on to rescue a point for England with an added-time strike
Bellingham loves to run in to pockets of space behind and beyond a central forward. He can do that with the ball and did so on numerous occasions against a Belgian defence that didn’t look secure. Equally, he looks for good service from those behind him and Mainoo already stands out as a reliable supply line.
As it stands, Mainoo’s international record is a rather unjust: Played 2 Won 0. That will change before long, one would imagine.
England were better here than they had been against Brazil. They were more fluent, quicker and created better angles. With all of that came good chances.
Mainoo was watching from the bench by the time Bellingham scored. This had been another big step forward for a gifted young player, though. With the Euros almost upon us, Southgate has been presented with another important layer of depth at just the right time.
