Kobbie Mainoo has been lights out recently. In my opinion, he used to be a moments midfielder - someone that stuck out in the memory for quality of technique and actions that carried more aesthetic value than on-pitch value. Recently (honestly since Michael Carrick took over), he's been a much more complete midfielder, where his data backs up his hype. For me, it starts with responsibility. In his first two seasons, he was in the bottom quartile for passes received, passes completed, and final third entries (vs. team median) among T5 midfielders. He was also in the 50th and 76th percentile for xThreat received; as in, how valuable were the passes he was receiving, as well as in the 82nd percentile for offensive duels won (VTM). So in years 1 and 2, a low touch, advanced receiver under-pressure. This also aligns to my contention that he was a "moments midfielder", as these actions will look more impressive than they are actually valuable. Last season, he made a big leap for all three of passes received, passes completed, and final third entries (VTM) - he was in the top half among T5 midfielders. His xThreat received fell to the 21st percentile, and this all makes sense - he's receiving earlier in possession, and more often. But, is this evolution really a good thing? Looking at the second image, his total VAEP over the past three seasons has been: - 23/24: 29th percentile - 24/25: 24th percentile - 25/26: 77th percentile So yes, the evolution is a good thing. He's getting on the ball more, he's positively impacting the game more, and the overall value he's contributing is higher. Oh, and even though his xThreat received has dropped, his off duels won VTM was still the exact same, so he didn't lose proficiency in tight spaces or under pressure when he was in those situations. And this season, he might be taking it to an even higher level. - comfortably 1st among PL midfielders for prg carry distance p90 - 75th percentile for xA p90 - 88th percentile for line breaking passes p90 Its like he was overrated due to biases of him being flashy, young, an academy product, on one of the biggest teams ITW, etc... but over the past 6 months of club football he's actually quantitatively been absolutely top, right at the same time the novelty of the things that biased people in the first place wore off. Now, was he capable of handling a larger volume of actions earlier, based on the things flashed in the first two seasons? I don't know, and I'm open to either answer. The fact is that he didn't, and I tend to use Occam's razor for evaluating volume metrics (within possession adjusted or team environment contexts); to me, the simplest answer for why a player didn't touch the ball as often is because they weren't good enough to earn the touches. Regardless, this is what a breakout season looks like. He still has the same core issues as before (weak in the air, minimal ground coverage), but his in-possession value has scaled from moments to sustained value. Somehow I think he might be underrated now.