Gary Lineker has now singled out midfielder Kobbie Mainoo after the Manchester United and England star’s career resurgence under Michael Carrick at Old Trafford.
Kobbie Mainoo has made four consecutive Premier League starts for the first time in the 2025-26 campaign since Michael Carrick returned to Old Trafford last month.
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The 20-year-old Manchester United midfielder has also completed the full 90 minutes in all four of Carrick’s first four matches in charge as interim head coach.
The resurgent Mainoo has picked up two assists in his last four Premier League matches, which came in the 3-2 win over Arsenal and 2-0 victory over Tottenham.
The Stockport-born midfielder had been struggling for United first-team minutes after Ruben Amorim dropped him from the starting XI earlier this season.
Gary Lineker sends a message to Kobbie Mainoo about former Man Utd manager Ruben Amorim
Former Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim made the call to drop Bruno Fernandes into the two-man midfield pivot in the 2025-26 Premier League season.
Casemiro had been Amorim’s preferred partner for Man Utd captain Bruno Fernandes, which left Kobbie Mainoo tumbling down the pecking order for selection.
Amorim was sacked as Man Utd manager last month and the 41-year-old Portuguese coach’s Old Trafford exit paved the way for Michael Carrick’s arrival at the club.
Speaking after United’s 2-0 win against Tottenham, Gary Lineker hilariously suggested one way that Mainoo could show Amorim how he truly feels about him.
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“Mainoo, and I say this in jest, I’d be thinking about whether I should sue him or not,” he said on The Rest Is Football podcast.
“I mean, he’s taken a year out of that kid’s career. This kid is a wonderful footballer. I mean, God, he makes it look so easy.
“Once the boy receives it with anyone around him and he turns, [he] always makes the right decisions. He’s graceful.”
Lineker added: “He’s been absolutely detrimental to his career. I mean, if he doesn’t make the World Cup squad, and I sense he probably [can] if he can stay fit and if he keeps playing because he’s just a seriously good footballer.
“I mean, I know his brother got in a bit of trouble, didn’t he? For saying with a T-shirt, ‘Free Kobe.’ But he has absolutely got a point. His brother, I think he was, I mean, there are so many things.”
Gary Lineker’s brutal assessment of Ruben Amorim after Kobbie Mainoo’s Man Utd revival under Michael Carrick
Lineker admitted that he is ‘baffled’ with what former Man Utd and Sporting CP manager Amorim could not see in the potential and talent of midfielder Mainoo.
“Wait till he gets the letter from Kobbie’s lawyer,” he told Alan Shearer.
“Oh, goodness me, there are so many things. I say this in jest, obviously, but I mean, come on.
“I mean, it’s so, so baffling that he [Amorim] couldn’t see how good that young man is. And I thought to myself, ‘Has something happened? Has he got, you know, above himself? Has he got something of…’
“But he’s come back in, you think, ‘No, no, he’s exactly what he was before,’ which was actually, if you think about it, England’s best player in the Euros.”
Mainoo has made 18 appearances across all competitions in the 2025-26 campaign and has not found the back of the net, but he does have three assists to his name.
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