Alejandro Garnacho labelled Kobbie Mainoo the ‘Man of the Match’ following Manchester United’s comfortable 2-0 FA Cup win at Wigan Athletic on Monday night.
The future looks bright at Old Trafford. And we are not just talking about Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s ambitious INEOS rebuild, and a potential, long-awaited exit for the despised Glazer family.
In teenage duo Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo, Manchester United have two of the most exciting, most complete teenage talents in European football growing and blossoming almost by the week.
OK, the opposition was, in truth, pretty limited. A Wigan Athletic side sitting 18th in England’s third tier.
But, as they say, you can only beat what lies in front of you. And Garnacho and Mainoo looked like Champions League performers on a League One pitch on Monday night, the former at his scintillating best on the right and the latter controlling proceedings as if possessed by the spirit of Michael Carrick.
Kobbie Mainoo shines in Manchester United win
Diogo Dalot picked up ITV’s Man of the Match award after opening the scoring in the first half, cutting inside and curling home in a repeat of that Sheffield United winner a few months ago.
But, as far as Garnacho is concerned, Dalot was a little fortunate to pick up the gong ahead of a midfielder with the body of a kid but the brain of a seasoned veteran.
“Man of the Match again,” Garnacho wrote in response to Mainoo’s full-time Instagram post.
Manchester United fans agreed, selecting Mainoo as the team’s star man on the night, with 45 per cent of the vote.
Football is a funny game at times. Manchester United spent almost all of 2022 chasing Frenkie de Jong and chucking mega-money bids in Barcelona’s direction, only for Carrington to produce their very own, Manchester-born equivalent.
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“If you are good enough, you are old enough,” Ten Hag said of the 18-year-old in December. “And (Mainoo) proved that.
“When he gets used more often to those games, we will get even more joy from it. Because then his scanning and his speed of action, he can get such passes, three or four passes in and get switches in, and he is the player who can really hurt opponents.”
Bruno Fernandes scored United’s second on the night against Wigan, while Omari Forson made his debut off the bench.
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