Ruben Amorim sees Kobbie Mainoo's future as an attacking midfielder after the Manchester United head coach revealed he had struggled with the defensive work in a deeper role.

Mainoo enjoyed his best game under Amorim against FCSB in the Europa League, scoring one goal and creating another in the 2-0 success that booked United a direct route into the last-16 of the competition.

The 19-year-old played in a No.10 role, with Bruno Fernandes deeper, and he excelled with the freedom that allowed him, turning in an impressive performance as he linked well with Fernandes and then with Alejandro Garnacho when the Argentine came on at half time.

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Mainoo had previously been used as a holding midfielder by Amorim and he was dubbed a "complete midfielder" by Erik ten Hag, but the academy graduate has found minutes harder to come by recently.

Amorim has now made the honest admission that his defensive work isn't good enough to fill that role and that his future is likely to lie further forward.

"The Kobbie position today, we need time to understand the players, he was struggling a lot defending as a midfielder," he said.

"Now more as a ten you can feel that he was so free, playing the ball near the box is really good, the small connections. We need time to work with the players and understand the best positions for them."

United always had control of the game in the National Arena and in the second half they upped the tempo to score twice, while wasting opportunities to add to that advantage.

"We controlled the game quite well, in the beginning a bit more slowly with the tempo but the opponent was really close, they covered all the space and sprint a lot and try to press our three defenders with one player," said Amorim.

"We managed to create some chances, in the second half you can see the opponent getting tired, more slower, we had more space between the lines with Kobbie, one-vs-one with Amad and the pace of Garna helped a lot. We scored two, should score more, had transitions sometimes four to two. A good game, we needed some rotation and now the focus is on the next game."