Kobbie Mainoo: How young Man Utd midfielder could be pivotal in Liverpool trip

"If players are good enough," Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag insisted earlier this season, "they are old enough."

The 18-year-old academy product Kobbie Mainoo provides a perfect example of this school of thought. Mainoo only made his full Premier League at the end of November but the teenager has shone as a rare bright spot in a bleak campaign for the Red Devils.

Manchester United make the ominous trip to Liverpool's Anfield fortress on Sunday afternoon with the memories of last season's 7-0 humiliation on the same ground still fresh.

Here's how Mainoo's involvement could help his side avoid another shellacking.

Calm port in the storm

Mainoo may have played just 162 minutes of Premier League football in his entire career - for comparison, seven members of United's squad have played more than 162 matches in the competition - but he has already proven capable of handling a hostile atmosphere on Merseyside.

"Kobbie is so mature, we are confident," Ten Hag gushed after Mainoo made his debut at Goodison Park which was boiling with indignation in November. In Everton's first game after the club's ten-point deduction, fans from the blue half of Stanley Park unleashed their pent-up fury upon the visiting red shirts.

Yet, Mainoo barely seemed to register the unrelenting wall of boos. With his every pass seemingly decided before the ball came his way, Mainoo was a constant option as United built from the back in a 3-0 win.

While United couldn't achieve another positive result against Newcastle United a week later, Mainoo was the same picture of composure in possession, misplacing just three passes at St James' Park. In each Premier League game Mainoo has started for United, the teenager has finished the match with his team's highest pass completion rate.

Liverpool will no doubt hound after their visitors - especially in the opening exchanges - but Mainoo's cool head could set the tone for a United side that are never far away from a skittish outburst.

Unscarred innocence

The last time Manchester United defeated Liverpool at Anfield, Mainoo was still in primary school. Experience can swing both ways. For those in the squad who know what to expect from an away trip to Liverpool, there can be a sense of dread from so many bleak and blundersome games.

However, there will be no haunting shouts of "We want eight!" clouding Mainoo's dreams ahead of the game.

United only trailed Liverpool by a single goal at half-time of their most recent visit to Anfield yet imploded after the break, with the likes of Luke Shaw and Bruno Fernandes somehow avoiding red cards despite losing all sense of discipline. Unlike the more experienced members of the team, Mainoo doesn't have a chunky back catalogue of chaos to tip him over the edge.

McTominay can be unchained

One figure who will not line up alongside Mainoo at Anfield will be club captain Fernandes. The fiery Portuguese midfielder is suspended for Sunday's contest after collecting his fifth yellow card of the season for a typically petulant burst of dissent against Bournemouth.

While losing a player who leads the team in assists, chances created and shots (among many other statistical categories) is never a good thing, Fernandes' absence offers Scott McTominay the chance to bomb forward more constructively.

The adventurous Scot is United's leading Premier League scorer this season and has been granted added licence to crash into the opposition box in recent weeks, with Ten Hag hailing McTominay's "smell for when to arrive". However, McTominay has been cantering forward while starting in midfield together with Fernandes, who lines up as United's number ten.

This has stretched United's flaky midfield even thinner. In the recent defeat to Chelsea for instance, which Mainoo watched from the bench, McTominay took more shots than he completed forward passes.

With Mainoo stitching the game together behind McTominay, rather than Sofyan Amrabat haphazardly scampering around on his own at the base of midfield, United should be a little more secure in the middle of the pitch.

Whether Mainoo's inclusion will be enough to break a seven-year drought at Anfield remains to be seen. But the Red Devils should at least emerge from their trip to Merseyside without another humiliation added to the pile if Mainoo maintains his strong start to senior football.

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