Erik Ten Hag Hails Kobbie Mainoo’s Impact At Manchester United

The 18-year-old midfielder was given only his third Premier League start for United against Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday and impressed with a mature performance to help his side gain an unexpected 0-0 draw. If you are good enough, you are old enough and he proved that, the impressed Dutchman said in a press conference after the game.

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.

After coming into this game on the back of two defeats, and having lost 7-0 at Anfield last season Ten Hag was relieved and proud of his entire team’s performance. I said that after the game in the dressing room, yes, I am very proud of this team. We should do this more often. I said this. For instance, Newcastle was also a tough game and we make one mistake and switch off and then it is a goal.

But when you stay in the game, and you are disciplined in your gameplan, finally it opens up and then you can take your chances. Or even, you can get two, three, four passes in after the ball regains, and get the switches in and then you can be really more dominant in the game.

Ten Hag's last words

The performances were very good from the side. I think on the game plan, the players were brilliant in how they were together and they stuck together, how they were fighting. Maybe the only criticism would be in possession, we could have hurt them more. We get one, two, three passes and we are in. But that was the only thing. We could have scored one of the two big opportunities and even won the game, but I think we defended very well.