How Kobbie Mainoo is fulfilling the ‘Paul Scholes thesis’: Man United’s 18-year-old will start for England at the Euros if Gareth Southgate picks based on form, writes IAN LADYMAN

It’s been over a season and a half since Paul Scholes watched another tame Manchester United performance and took to social media to express his frustrations.

“Midfielders, it’s all about body shape when receiving the ball,” Scholes wrote.

‘Too often they are in front of their own goal and can only play one way.

‘Take the ‘half turn’ and bring more talented players into the game’.

It seemed like sensible advice from someone who knows, and deep into the 2023-2024 season it seems like an answer to the question has come out of the darkness to provide a solution to one problem at United and another for England.

Kobbie Mainoo is only 18, but United’s needs are great, as is his talent, it seems. The teenager is already front and center of everything remotely good at Old Trafford.

With England it’s a little different. Manager Gareth Southgate has no shortage of technically gifted players.

When he looks at his team, ballplayers lurk in every corner. What he really needs, though, is a player who can field last night’s captain, Declan Rice, in central midfield.

Kalvin Phillips has gone downhill at Manchester City and now at West Ham, while Jordan Henderson was once the answer to the problem but is no longer.

So the trajectory of Mainoo’s shooting star was welcome. He only made his first Premier League start at the end of November and was without a goal until the end of January.

But now he is an England player – a 75th-minute substitute against Brazil at the weekend and a starter last night – and, it seems, a very likely inclusion for Southgate’s side for the European Championships in Germany this summer.

If that all sounds like it happened pretty quickly, that’s because it did. But that doesn’t mean it happened too quickly. If Southgate opts for form, talent and influence – rather than pure loyalty – then Mainoo will certainly be in the squad and most likely in the team when England play Serbia in Gelsenkirchen on June 16.

Here he was perhaps their best player until he was substituted with twenty minutes to go – probably in consultation with Erik ten Hag at United. He ticks all those boxes that Scholes so succinctly outlined in August 2022, and probably a few more.

His first real influence on the game was indeed profound and played along the lines of Scholes.

England had started poorly, conceding a terrible goal, their makeshift defense creaking and groaning under the pressure of early Belgian cohesion.

So England needed something when the ball came to Mainoo in midfield and a shoulder movement immediately gave him space in which to work. From then on it was simple. Looking up, Jude saw Bellingham running into space ahead of him, and the step to find him was easy. From there the ball was shifted another five yards to Ivan Toney and an important penalty was won and then scored.

And this is what separates decent midfield players from the very good ones. This is Scholes’ theorem. It is the ability to function in those most crowded areas with a full sense of time, space and consciousness.

Can it be learned? Maybe to some extent. All players can be encouraged to raise their heads more often.

But there are also people who just seem to be able to do it. It’s quite hectic to watch things almost in slow motion, when in reality they are all around them. To see space, choose passes and moves and then execute them.

This is what Mainoo does. He moves the ball quickly, freely and accurately. He keeps the ball rolling, connects passages of play and, perhaps most importantly, moves possession forward more often than not.

At this early stage he looks like a good opponent for Rice and the only thing he seems to be lacking at this stage is experience. Perhaps he can use that to his advantage. Experience of what? Failure and narrow squeak and disappointment? How important is that really?

Rice, now with 50 caps, is a different type of central player. The Arsenal midfielder likes to play with space in front of him. He likes to watch the game develop, move with the ball and play longer passes into the space in front of him.

Mainoo is comfortable in tight situations at this early stage of his career. He wants the ball and doesn’t like to waste it. Here he was sharp enough in the 33rd minute to anticipate a stupid pass from Belgian goalkeeper Matz Sels into the feet of Amadou Onana on the edge of his own penalty area.

Mainoo was on Onana in the blink of an eye and chased him out of possession with a sharp challenge that gave Bellingham an easy chance of him being lifted over the bar somehow.

That was a rare misstep by Bellingham, who would make amends upon his death. In fact, at this stage he seems the most likely beneficiary of Mainoo’s rise.

Bellingham likes to run into space behind and past a central attacker. He can do that with the ball and did so several times against a Belgian defense that did not look safe. At the same time, he looks for good service from the people behind him and Mainoo already distinguishes itself as a reliable supply line.

As it stands, Mainoo’s international record is rather unfair: played 2 won 0. That will change soon, you might imagine.

England were better here than against Brazil. They were smoother, faster and created better angles. All this created good opportunities.

Mainoo was watching from the bench by the time Bellingham scored. However, this was another big step forward for a gifted young player. With the euro almost upon us, Southgate has been given another important layer of depth at just the right time.