Kobbie Mainoo looks to be perfectly positioned to benefit from Mauricio Pochettino's arrival at Manchester United more than potentially anyone else at the club.

Michael Carrick's sacking on the way into the international break continued the chaotic cycle of mid-season hiring and firing at Old Trafford which has persisted since Erik ten Hag's departure, and in a broader sense all the way back to Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement.

The form under the ex-Red Devils midfielder since he was rewarded with a permanent deal made it almost impossible to see any other outcome, and now former Tottenham and Chelsea boss Pochettino becomes the latest to be given the unenviable task of arresting the long-term slide.

He leaves his job as USMNT boss next week after completing his duties during the current break and the focus inevitably now turns to how his United side will look and behave differently from Carrick's, Ruben Amorim's, or Ten Hag's.

Mainoo has already emerged as a prime candidate to make significant gains from the Argentinian's arrival, in stark contrast to the negative effects on his career created by Amorim taking over.

Mainoo to build on revival under Carrick

Mainoo, still now just 21, broke into the United first team as a teenager under Ten Hag and translated that emergence into a key role in Gareth Southgate's England side.

The midfielder came into the 2024/25 season having just started all the Three Lions' knockout games on the run to the final of Euro 2024, and looked primed to be the latest in a long line of academy products to become mainstays in the senior side at Old Trafford.

But after Ten Hag was sacked and Amorim was convinced to leave Sporting mid-season, Mainoo's standing in the squad became more uncertain as the Portuguese attempted to implement his 4-3-3 set-up, and coupled with some injury set backs the youngster's future at the club was even in doubt amid interest from Chelsea.

He had largely been relegated to late introductions off the bench during the first half of last season before Carrick took over and restored him to the status of regular starter.

Major midfield investment followed in the summer as Andrey Santos, Youri Tielemans, and Carlos Baleba came in, but despite United's overall fortunes taking a nosedive in recent months Mainoo has kept his place in the XI, outside a four-game stretch last month.

With Pochettino on the way, The Telegraph are reporting that the England international is one of a handful of current players who the new boss will "like", according to a source who has previously worked with him.

Baleba and captain Bruno Fernandes are also named, suggesting the trio could become the preferred unit in midfield in possible bad news for new arrivals Santos and Tielemans.

Eriksen has already handed Mainoo blueprint for success

But more than just being a regular in the starting lineup, Mainoo could be in line to establish himself as a key contributor for the foreseeable future thanks to his learning from former teammate Christian Eriksen.

The Danish star was one of the leading lights of Pochettino's famous Tottenham side of the previous decade, one which reached a Champions League final and narrowly missed out on a Premier League title during a period of low investment in the squad.

Mainoo came through at United while watching Eriksen, who left Old Trafford at the expiry of his contract in the summer of 2025, and explained ahead of England's meeting with Denmark back at Euro 2024 how he had learned from his senior club teammate.

"I have learned a lot from him, watching him last season when I wasn't playing as much, trying to learn and pick up from his game as well."

Goals and assists were a major element of Eriksen's output at Spurs but have yet to become a central element of Mainoo's contribution for United. It was never quite as much of Eriksen's as a United player either, although that was arguably down to upheaval at the club and not being one of the first names on the team sheet in the same way.

Fernandes might be the more obvious comparison to Tottenham-era Eriksen but the Portuguese star is over a decade older than Mainoo and his longer-term contract situation remains uncertain, so if Pochettino can bring the more creative qualities out of the younger man's game it could turn him into a genuine United star.

For Mainoo to be able to take what he learned from Eriksen and implement it on a consistent basis under the manager who got the most out of the Dane would surely require Pochettino to stay in his post longer than his predecessors, which itself will require a much greater turnaround throughout the squad and off the pitch.

It would also require the 54-year-old to break a habit of short stays since his departure from Spurs, having spent no more than 26 months with any of PSG, Chelsea or the USMNT since 2019, but if he does so at United it would likely mean he has done what he was brought into do.