West Ham striker Michail Antonio has been raving about one Manchester United player who impressed him earlier this season.
Manchester United have played West Ham twice this season and the two occasions could not have seen more different results.
The first outing was away from home at the London Stadium, just days before Christmas.
Here, two goals in six minutes from the home side made it an unhappy holiday for Erik ten Hag.
But round two saw the tables turned, with United walking out impressive 3-0 victors with Alejandro Garnacho and Rasmus Hojlund starring.
In both outings, there was another who impressed, now Michail Antonio has shared his views.
Michail Antonio admits how he reacted to Kobbie Mainoo display vs West Ham
Speaking on The Players Channel podcast, both Michail Antonio and Tom Cairney were raving about Kobbie Mainoo.
Fulham midfielder Cairney kicked it off, admitting he was blown away by the goal that the 18-year-old scored for United vs Liverpool last weekend.
“You know what though, that goal from Kobbie Mainoo. Wow. Like what a goal, what a moment for that kid. man, he’s absolutely ripping it up this season.”
To this, the Hammers forward Antonio shared how he felt about Mainoo the first time he saw him play, admitting what he couldn’t believe.
“He is frightening. He is actually frightening. The craziest thing is when they came to us at the beginning of the season [London Stadium in December], I looked at the team and I was like ‘Huh, I don’t really know many of these players.’
“But then obviously when he played against us, I was like ‘this kid is something special’, but then I was like ‘Where have they signed him from’, ‘They have to have signed him man, cause this guy is a joke.’
“Then obviously he came through the academy, and I was like ‘nah this kid is something else.'”
How has Kobbie Mainoo played for Manchester United during both games vs West Ham
One team that’s had to handle Mainoo twice already in his young career is West Ham and in both games, he’s been very impressive.
In the first game, he made one mistake which led to a West Ham goal but other than that he barely put a foot wrong which is how he also played the second game.
From these displays, the Hammers are quite clearly a team that Mainoo will be looking forward to playing against them again next season.