Manchester United fans revealed their verdict on Ruben Amorim’s major call to play Kobbie Mainoo as a false nine against Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon.
Crystal Palace arrived at Old Trafford for their Premier League encounter with Manchester United after the Red Devils’ win over FCSB on Thursday evening.
Ruben Amorim’s men punched their ticket to the round of 16 of the Europa League with their 2-0 victory at the National Arena in Bucharest.
Kobbie Mainoo played as one of the two No 10s in Amorim’s tactical system against FCSB and the United midfielder netted against Romanian outfit FCSB.
Rasmus Hojlund led the line in Thursday’s 2-0 win in Bucharest, but the struggling United striker failed to make an impact and was hooked off in the 80th minute.
Joshua Zirkzee came off the bench and replaced Rasmus Hojlund and the 23-year-old Dutch forward saw out the remainder of the Europa League tie.
Mainoo as false nine for Man Utd
Ruben Amorim dropped Rasmus Hojlund to the bench alongside Joshua Zirkzee for the Premier League match against Crystal Palace at Old Trafford.
The 40-year-old United manager experimented with his starting XI and Kobbie Mainoo was deployed as a false nine for Sunday’s encounter.
Amad Diallo and Alejandro Garnacho were both out on the wings in the 3-4-3 set-up under Amorim and the pair offered support to Mainoo in the attacking trident.
United impressed in the early stages of the first half at Old Trafford and Mainoo was lively leading the frontline against Oliver Glasner’s men.
Mainoo almost broke the deadlock for United in the opening 10 minutes after the England star’s effort hit the base of the left-hand post.
However, the 19-year-old England international’s influence began to wane as the match progressed and United and Palace went into half-time with a 0-0 scoreline.
Mainoo continued in the role after the break and was unable to exert the same impact that he did in the opening of the first half.
Jean-Philippe Mateta stunned United in the second half by breaking the deadlock for Palace before Mainoo was withdrawn by Amorim.
Mainoo’s time as a false nine came to an end in the 70th minute after he was replaced by United striker Hojlund for the remainder of the Premier League match.
Man Utd fans react to Mainoo’s display vs Palace
United fans on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, insisted that Red Devils boss Amorim made the wrong call over Mainoo with his “poor experiment.”
One X user said: “Why was Mainoo playing false [nine] in the first place when you had a number [nine] (Zirkzee) [on] the bench? We’ve [become] experiment FC.”
Another added: “70th min. [Amorim] takes Mainoo off and puts his [No] 9s on. Cancel [the] experiment.”
“The role Mainoo was asked to play he wasn’t suited for. As an attacking unit, the entire team has been awful,” a fourth added.
Someone else wrote: “Poor experiment by Amorim playing Mainoo up front today. If he didn’t want either Rasmus or Zirkzee, there’s Bruno Fernandes, who did that successfully under Ole [Gunnar] Solskjaer.”
“Fair to say Kobbie Mainoo at false [nine] was a failed experiment,” another tweeted.
While a sixth commented: “Take off one of [Diogo] Dalot or [Noussair] Mazraoui and bring on Zirkzee, man. This Mainoo at [No] 9 experiment was cute but hasn’t worked since the first [five] minutes.”
A seventh fan argued: “Ruben just wasted f*****g time with that Mainoo in false 9 thing. When I first saw it, I thought it was odd… because I would’ve put Garnacho there instead (out of the 3) and put Mainoo on the left.”
Somebody else said: “Manager got it wrong today. Mainoo is a [No] 10, not a false 9.”
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