“People laughed at me years ago when i said he will become a world class player, some even called me a mad person”- Chelsea icon John Terry says Man united’s ‘generational talent’ is now proving the haters wrong especially Arsenal and Chelsea fans
Hang on, roll the tape back. Play it again. Shock as Jack Grealish and Marcus Rashford left out of England squad. England players using £421 smart ring to boost Euros hopes. Fury over Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer comments on podcast. Some men throw beer cups at Gareth Southgate (and miss). Jude Bellingham in hot water over “obscene gesture”. Nineteen-year-old runs England midfield in first international tournament. Bellingham fined over “obscene gesture” but escapes ban. Southgate hits back at critics. Southgate fumes over tactical “leaks” in media.
Did you spot it? Did you need another look? Like the famous viral video of the moonwalking bear, there are times when it’s easy to get lost in the noise, in the distractions, to follow the loose threads, and ignore something quite unusual happening right in your field of vision. Like Kobbie Mainoo, who in the time it took you to read this paragraph has already played three passes and slipped down the defender’s blind side to make himself available for the return.
Statistics will only tell you part of the story, but they will at least tell you a part. As we approach the final stages of this tournament, Mainoo’s pass completion rate of 94.4% is the sixth highest. Ahead of him: Sasa Lukic of Serbia, Orel Mangala of Belgium and three defenders. Behind him: Rodri (93.2%), Aurélien Tchouaméni (93%), Jorginho (91.2%), Granit Xhaka (90.7%), Toni Kroos (90.4%) and Luka Modric (86%).
Bear in mind, too, that these are not stat-padded passes, easy reset balls played under minimal pressure. The numbers – and the eyes – testify that Mainoo has frequently been operating in the most crowded area of the pitch, where the margins are at their finest and space at a premium. Against Switzerland the defining motif of his evening was of receiving the ball within a triangle of red shirts, surrounded by much bigger men, brushing them off and holding his own. More than half his touches have come in the middle third, and 38% in the attacking third.
At which point, it is worth setting this into some context. Quietly, and in the space of two games, England have basically solved the midfield problem that has been preoccupying successive England managers since … Eriksson? Robson? Winterbottom? Campaign after campaign has been hobbled by English football’s chronic inability to produce the midfielder who can simply and productively take the ball, keep possession, offer control in midfield. “We have been short of these types of players for seven or eight years, if I’m honest,” Southgate lamented before the tournament. “At times, that has had an effect on the way we have been able to play.”
Well, here he is. He remains, lest we forget, 19 years of age. Perhaps there are similarities here with his instant impact on Erik ten Hag’s listing Manchester United team this season: a dysfunctional collective for whom the centre of midfield is not simply a weakness but a kind of scourge, the source of their most vivid fears. To come in and somehow inject not just calmness but hope, not just to recycle play but to advance it, not just to have the ball but to want it and to enjoy it: yes, this is new, even revolutionary, and perhaps the secret to its success (so far) has been trying not to make too big a fuss out of it.
Because unless you’re watching particularly closely, it’s not immediately obvious what Mainoo has been doing out there. He hasn’t scored or assisted. He doesn’t have lung-busting pace or an urge to unveil his entire box of tricks. Indeed, the very lack of ostentation is the point. For decades English football has possessed central midfielders who see their role as a canvas, never content with one touch where three touches will do, dissatisfied with their possession unless they have done something eye-catching. Desperate, above all, to be seen.
Mainoo, by contrast, wants to disappear. There are of course flourishes there: a wicked long shot, the deadly spin and run that took two Swiss players out of the game on Saturday night, allowing him to stride 45 yards up the middle of the pitch. But most of his game is about combination play. Bringing others into the game. Drawing defenders towards him and making space elsewhere.
