Real Madrid are reportedly targeting Manchester United star Kobbie Mainoo as a replacement for Luka Modric as they admit defeat in their bid to sign a ‘mouth-watering’ Manchester City star.
Modric will go down in history as a Madrid legend having spent 12 years at the club, winning five Champions League titles and three La Liga titles.
Phil Foden ‘impossible’
The Croatia international has not been offered a new deal at the club and may leave in the summer, though manager Carlo Ancelotti has offered him a place on his coaching staff if he wants to remain at the Bernabeu.
In any case, Madrid are looking for a replacement, and Spanish publication Nacional claim president Florentino Perez has Mainoo in his sights, as signing top choice Phil Foden is deemed ‘impossible’.
Foden scored a stunning goal at the Bernabeu on Tuesday to leave ‘Real Madrid’s mouth watering’, but Perez recognises it won’t be possible to lure him away from City.
Mainoo is ‘good caviar’
Mainoo though – described as ‘good caviar’ – has ‘aroused the interest’ of Madrid, and is thought to be comparable to Foden despite only breaking into the United first team this season.
The report adds: ‘Mainoo is a total soccer player. With an enviable physique, the Englishman is a player capable of falling to the side, of appearing in the area from the second line, with a great shot of the ball, and with a great capacity to help in the physical withdrawal’.
Perez is ‘betting on young talents’ and Jude Bellingham’s outstanding start to his career in Madrid will only have strengthened the president’s desire to hoover up further young English talent.
Mainoo scored an outstanding goal in the 2-2 draw with Liverpool, but United legend Gary Neville claims the 18-year-old still has much to learn when it comes to his positioning in midfield after he failed to do “the basics of the game” alongside Casemiro.
“Look where Mainoo is there, he’s ahead of the ball on a throw-in. For a central midfield player I always think – and Bruno Fernandes, he had to run back,” Neville said on Sky Sports.
“Forget about that [man-marking system], forget about Mac Allister, don’t be ahead of the ball. You can always get up to that one. He’s moving up there now, it defies logic and it’s the basics of the game.
“Even now he’s chasing across the pitch, he doesn’t need to. Garnacho and Hojlund can deal with that. Look at the space behind him – that space alongside Casemiro there. Mac Allister’s run into that space now. Just the basics.
“Look at where Casemiro and Mainoo have gone now, it opens up a path there. Honestly, it’s basics. Absolute basics. It’s so easy to play against Manchester United’s midfield.
“It’s the most bizarre and peculiar, and if you’re watching football or if you’ve played midfield – or any position on the pitch – you just know these are the sort of things you learn as a 12-year-old. Bruno’s gone there and he’s no chance of getting anywhere near that pass.”
