Baby elephant is growing quickly in the room

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sammsky1

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£90m+ should buy you instant world class impact. Especially if that new incoming player has virtually zero new club, country or league adjustments to go through. In that context, we should call a spade a spade: Paul Pogba's start to his 2nd Manchester United career has been way under expectations.

He has struggled to find his role in the team, has been suspect to plenty off midfield indiscipline and his scoring attempts are fanciful. In general he has made very little impact.

People will make excuses and accommodations but a player of this supposed value should be superior to that, they should be able to shape the environment around them, not expect it to be shaped for them.

Im not saying Pogba will be a flop, far from it and am willing to give him a lot more time. But his poor start should be noted and its concerning.
 
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An inch lower on the header he would've had a goal.
If Ibra hadn't fecked up with the chance in the 1st minute he would've had a great assist.
I'm not worried in the slightest. He'll come good.
 
Honestly, stupid fecking post made in the heat of the moment. This is why I need to stay clear of the Caf in the wake of disappointing result. The state of the match day thread, and now this.
 
I think most people know we overpaid for him x 2, it is what it is, as crazy as it sounds we didn't buy the finished article, it's going to take a bit of time.
 
Stobzilla said:
He's had no pre-season and has virtually played non stop football for a year. His transfer fee is not HIS problem.
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Overly simplistic. In this day and age, it is. His contribution is a critical part of the algorithm os us getting to the top again. If he fails, we fail.
 
Vidicious said:
An inch lower on the header he would've had a goal.
If Ibra hadn't fecked up with the chance in the 1st minute he would've had a great assist.
I'm not worried in the slightest. He'll come good.
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Thread /
 
simonhch said:
Honestly, stupid fecking post made in the heat of the moment. This is why I need to stay clear of the Caf in the wake of disappointing result. The state of the match day thread, and now this.
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Great thread title though
 
Bit of luck and he walks away from the game with an assist for the opener and a goal to cap off a dominant win at the end. Didn't see much wrong with his game today, played well.
 
simonhch said:
Honestly, stupid fecking post made in the heat of the moment. This is why I need to stay clear of the Caf in the wake of disappointing result. The state of the match day thread, and now this.
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Not at all. Its a point made having watched him every second he has played this season. UNDERWHELMING to say the least.
 
Vidicious said:
An inch lower on the header he would've had a goal.
If Ibra hadn't fecked up with the chance in the 1st minute he would've had a great assist.
I'm not worried in the slightest. He'll come good.
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Pretty much this. Although, he probably should have scored with the header. He's hit the woodwork twice this season, quite easily could have a couple of assists to his name. He'll come good.
 
He is our most incisive passer (that pass to Ibra was just perfect), he keeps the ball well and he could've easily scored two goals if he were a little more lucky - and you would've been praising him here.

Yes, he's not perfect - but we knew that, didn't we?
 
sammsky1 said:
In that context, we should call a spade a spade: Paul Pogba's start to his 2nd Manchester United career has been way under expectations.
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Depends what your expectations were. Any who watched Juventus regularly would have told you this is exactly the player Pogba is.

People need to stop viewing transfer fees as an indicator of a players quality because it simply isn't. It just a transfer fee. It's not Pogbas fault we were daft enough the pay the extortionate fee Juve wanted.
 
We still have an actual elephant turning out for us for 30 minutes at a time when we need a goal. I'll worry more about that.
 
That performance against Leicester showed us what he is capable of. Just need that Pogba to turn up on a more consistent basis once he is fully settled. Not worried yet, will be if the 1 game good, 4 games poor ratio is still the case in another few months down the road.
 
Vidicious said:
An inch lower on the header he would've had a goal.
If Ibra hadn't fecked up with the chance in the 1st minute he would've had a great assist.
I'm not worried in the slightest. He'll come good.
Click to expand...

That would not have disguised a very ineffective contribution to the match. Seriously, against Stoke, he should be a fast track bully and absolutely boss it.
 
If Rooney had missed those 2 chances they'd each have had their own thread with about 2000 posts by now.
 
Pogba is never a 90 million player . He may be in the future .

Have said many times that unless we replace Carrick or switch to proper 4-3-3 we will struggle
 
What exactly is the point of this thread? Could this not have been posted in his performance thread?
 
Disagree he's made little impact.

We went from having zero threat and creativity from the centre of the park to having a fair bit of both. Hasn't always come off for him so far but the threat is definitely there, some of his creative passing has been fantastic.
 
Raoul said:
I doubt this thread would exist if his header was 6 inches lower.
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Id have still felt the same. Anyways, fact is the header did not go in. Thats a microcosm of his general contribution so far, in my opinion.
 
He has struggled to find his role in this team because he's not being used in the best possible way. The team should be built around him, and it currently isn't. Until he got dropped, it was built around Rooney. Mourinho has a problem in fitting so many players in to the team. We saw the same from France at the Euros, he was too deep, and other midfielders were given more attacking freedom, the freedom he should be having. He needs to have two midfielders behind him, and give him that licence to support the attack, whilst the likes of Herrera and possibly Carrick keep shape behind him.

We said it all summer long that if he's playing in the midfield two then whilst he'll probably do alright, it won't unlock his absolute potential.
 
sammsky1 said:
Overly simplistic. In this day and age, it is. His contribution is a critical part of the algorithm os us getting to the top again. If he fails, we fail.
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:lol: /iamsmart

He had a bad game. Still early days. People need to chill out.
 
Sack Pogba, sell Mourinho
Top 4 out the window
 
Minimalist said:
We still have an actual elephant turning out for us for 30 minutes at a time when we need a goal. I'll worry more about that.
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Yeah, I thought this was another Rooney thread. Throughly disappointed.
 
I think he has played well and he is a top player. Would give him 7/10 so far.

The problem is that he has been playing alongside players like Rooney and Lingard.
 
I'm more worried about the other 30M £ arrival who has played a grand total of 50 mins so far.
 
sammsky1 said:
Id have still felt the same. Anyways, fact is the header did not go in. Thats a microcosm of his general contribution so far, in my opinion.
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I seriously doubt we'd be seeing this sort of negativity had it gone in. We were simply unlucky today.
 
rocks13 said:
If Rooney had missed those 2 chances they'd each have had their own thread with about 2000 posts by now.
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This is close to my point!!! Those misses are unforgivable for a player who costs £90m!!
 
I'm not his biggest fan by any stretch but he was desparately unlucky today. The big issue I had with him all along has come to pass. He doesn't dominate midfield, we need a domininat midfielder in the centre, Pogba isn't that.
 
You can see the talent he has. His ability to play great passes and quickly are top class. But he needs to solid centre midfielders. For me he is a number 10.
 
sammsky1 said:
That would not have disguised a very ineffective contribution to the match. Seriously, against Stoke, he should be a fast track bully and absolutely boss it.
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Ineffective? He created a couple of goal scoring chances, rarely gives the ball away. What else do you expect from a CM?
 
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