Kobbie Mainoo: Manchester United legend calls for star to play more after 'cruel' few months | OneFootball

England international has been repeatedly overlooked this term

The young midfielder has struggled for consistent game time under Ruben Amorim, and had a request to leave the club on loan turned down in the summer.

The 20-year-old has made just eight appearances in all competitions, and he has not started a single Premier League match.

“It's a very tough situation, especially for a young player,' Berbatov told the Daily Mail.

“It shows you how football can be a really cruel game at times because Mainoo was playing, he reached the England national team, he was going up, up, and up. All of a sudden he is not being picked.

“Now the question is, does he stay positive, patient, and wait for his moment again? Or he needs to move to a different place to play regularly to get his confidence back and come back to United and start playing more regularly?

“I'd like to see him play because the talent is there to see, that decision-making, that calmness and arrogance which you need with the ball at your feet is there, even at his age. I like that. But at the moment, the manager doesn't see something he can use from the first minute of the game.”

The Bulgarian, who played 149 times for United, scoring 56 goals, also commented on Cristiano Ronaldo’s recent interview with Piers Morgan, where the Portuguese legend claimed that United’s current crop of players did not have the required mentality to win trophies.

“Coming from Ronaldo, I think that's a fair assessment because he's been in that winning mentality all his professional career. That's why he's on the Mount Rushmore [of football],” Berbatov continued.

“When you have someone of that stature in football say something like this, then especially the young players who are representing United, they need to understand why they are hearing something like this.

“There needs to be more hunger to be among the top teams in the league, to go to places where you can see them winning the title again because it's been 12 years without a Premier League title. That's a big period without United winning the title.”