Maguire warns Mainoo would have left United if Amorim had stayed in charge

Harry Maguire has claimed Kobbie Mainoo would have been moved on from Manchester United had Ruben Amorim not been sacked in January, lifting the lid on the midfielder’s difficult first half of the 2024-25 season.

Speaking on The Rest Is Football podcast, Maguire explained that Amorim’s preferred two-man central midfield system left little room for Mainoo. The manager wanted Bruno Fernandes as one of the two central midfielders and sought a more defensive partner alongside him — a profile Mainoo, still developing at 19, did not fit at the time.

“Yeah, I think it all stemmed out of that we played a formation where there was two [in central midfield] and he wanted Bruno to be one of those two,” Maguire said. “And then I think he wanted a real defensive one alongside Bruno and at the time Kobbie was young, inexperienced and probably didn’t know the position as well.”

“But listen, if Ruben was still the manager now, Kobbie would have probably been shifted on and be looking for a new club but he’s turned things around, credit to him. It would have been a mistake because he’s a Manchester lad, he’s come through the academy and we want them players in our club to drive the club forward for the next 10 years.”

Mainoo did not start a Premier League match under Amorim until the manager was dismissed. At one point, the Spaniard even deployed him as a makeshift forward in a home defeat to Crystal Palace in February 2025, underscoring how far outside his natural role he had been pushed.

Michael Carrick, who took over on an interim basis for the remainder of the season, immediately restored Mainoo to the starting XI. The midfielder’s form in the second half of the campaign was strong enough to earn him a place in England’s squad for the 2026 World Cup.

Mainoo himself acknowledged the turbulence of the earlier months without dwelling on it. “Obviously there were difficult times but I tried to keep my focus on what was in front of me, take things day by day and just keep working my craft,” he told reporters. “Thankfully it has [come good].”

Maguire’s comments represent the most direct public criticism of Amorim’s handling of Mainoo from within the United dressing room, and raise fresh questions about how the former Sporting CP head coach managed some of the club’s most promising homegrown talent during his brief tenure at Old Trafford.