Nice article on Pogba in FourFourTwo

SecondFig

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Have Manchester United uncovered their very own Patrick Vieira?

Thursday 05 May 2011 12:18

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Down the years Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United have endured many a battle against a tall and powerful French midfielder. But now, Fergie's got one of his own.

Step forward Paul Pogba, a 18-year-old with all the qualities of a young Patrick Vieira, and arguably a few more. Having been plucked from near obscurity at Ligue 2's Le Harve, Pogba looks set for a bright future under Ferguson's tutelage.

The youngster arrived at Old Trafford in 2009, amid a spat with parent club Le Havre. The French side cried foul over the transfer, suggesting The Red Devils had broken a pre-contract agreement in signing elsewhere. United rallied, claiming that the agreement did not prevent clubs from outside France from signing the player. After nearly a year of wrangling the two clubs finally reached an agreement.

The exciting box-to-box midfielder made his debut for Manchester United's Under 18's in October of 2009, and it very quickly became apparent why Manchester United had fought so hard to push the transfer through, despite any possible damage it could do to their reputation. Pogba's powerful, energetic, yet stylish approach to the game make him a perfect fit for English football.

The first thing you notice about the Frenchman is his physique. Pogba is comfortably over six foot and boasts good upper body strength, and a long stride. Yet far from being a big languid unit in the middle of the park, he has a swagger in possession, and is not afraid to dribble, run at defenders or shoot from range.

It was the step up into United's Reserve team where that latter quality was really shown off, when he scored a notable screamer from all of 30 yards against Portsmouth Reserves. The goal impressed all watching, including Sir Alex Ferguson. It's a feat he's repeated a number of occasions, including at international level with France, for whom he is a current Under 19 international.

This season has been another of steady development for Pogba. He has been named in a number of first-team squads, and that will become a more regular occurrence if he continues to work hard at developing his game. The perfect way to show he's on track for a first-team role is to do what United do best - win trophies. Pogba is set to play a key role in the upcoming FA Youth Cup Final against Sheffield United, having previously turned in solid displays in the previous rounds, most notably against Chelsea in the semi-final.

Many fans and pundits have speculated that Ferguson may reshuffle his midfield this summer, introducing some fresh blood to act as competition to the likes of Darren Fletcher, Darron Gibson and Anderson. Paul Pogba will hope to be at the fore-front of those plans, as a new wave of impressive United youngsters make their push for the first-team.
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Whats his chances next season? wouldn't think he would get much game time but any chance of League cup football? he will surely be reaching a age where we often play players in that competition.
 
Written by the Arsenal Youth guy. Pogba seems to be a bit behind Tunnicliffe and Morrison, and not sure where James fits in etc. He might be on the bench in the CC or a dead rubber CL game but I think he's still a year or so away from making any kind of impact, especially since he's not been a reserves regular.
 
Agreed with what datura said, should be some quite fun Carling Cup games though next season with a good few youngsters ready for some kind of first team action.
 
I don't see how we can say he's a head of him and vise versa. I don't think its something we can predict. The main thing for the kids is to win the youth cup now. It will be a good test against Sheffield United because they have to protect against the 'belief' they've already won it. If we win it then I think pre season we'll see bits and pieces and it'll go from there. Obviously Scholes future comes into it. Do we trust in what we have, with Cleverly coming back or do we spunk money on a midfielder. Thankfully we are in a position to be paitent because I believe if he was an arsenal player, he'd have featured already.
 
Striker10 said:
I don't see how we can say he's a head of him and vise versa. I don't think its something we can predict. The main thing for the kids is to win the youth cup now. It will be a good test against Sheffield United because they have to protect against the 'belief' they've already won it. If we win it then I think pre season we'll see bits and pieces and it'll go from there. Obviously Scholes future comes into it. Do we trust in what we have, with Cleverly coming back or do we spunk money on a midfielder. Thankfully we are in a position to be paitent because I believe if he was an arsenal player, he'd have featured already.
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I definitely agree with the last point and coming into a side with a winning mentality would improve him more.So yes let's be patient with the lad.He's not physically developed completely too which is not unusual for big gangly kid like he is.The one thing Utd will be guarded against is playing him too early and risk injuries.The one thing I feel has held Diaby back is that he was played in too many intensity games...I may be wrong but has this not contributed to the latter's appaling injury record?
 
Striker10 said:
I don't see how we can say he's a head of him and vise versa. I don't think its something we can predict. The main thing for the kids is to win the youth cup now. It will be a good test against Sheffield United because they have to protect against the 'belief' they've already won it. If we win it then I think pre season we'll see bits and pieces and it'll go from there. Obviously Scholes future comes into it. Do we trust in what we have, with Cleverly coming back or do we spunk money on a midfielder. Thankfully we are in a position to be paitent because I believe if he was an arsenal player, he'd have featured already.
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I take it that was aimed at my post. I was only saying that other players have been preferred to Pogba for the reserves, therefore they appear to be ahead of him in their development, nothing more than that.
 
Cringing at the Vieira comparisons (more the headline, admittedly). Not sure the Arsenal youth guy has really seen Pogba play more than once/twice to be honest.
 
PS18 said:
Cringing at the Vieira comparisons (more the headline, admittedly). Not sure the Arsenal youth guy has really seen Pogba play more than once/twice to be honest.
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Dunno, I've seen a lot of people rubbishing the Viera comparison, calling lazy and saying it's based purely on his being a tall black French midfielder. But in all honesty, stylistically he's not that dissimilar, he's tough tackling, box to box and strong - but he's also very skilful on the ball, has a decent eye for a pass, and a good eye for goal.

Having said all that, I agree that I think the writer of the piece has only seen him play a few times. Pogba seems to have attracted a bit of attention recently from rival fans - I was reading a few Chelsea fans discussions of the Youth Cup semi-final and there were a lot of complimentary comments about him.
 
datura said:
I take it that was aimed at my post. I was only saying that other players have been preferred to Pogba for the reserves, therefore they appear to be ahead of him in their development, nothing more than that.
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Aimed isn't really the right word. I wasn't having a pop, but it's very close. The reserves is always funny to judge with so many changes. I think the youth cups really taken priority and it only goes to show the strength in depth really.
 
Striker10 said:
Aimed isn't really the right word. I wasn't having a pop, but it's very close. The reserves is always funny to judge with so many changes. I think the youth cups really taken priority and it only goes to show the strength in depth really.
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As often with you, I don't really see your point. Morrison and Tunnicliffe were preferred BEFORE the youth cup run, and have featured during it too, which would indicate to most rational people that they are currently ahead of Pogba in their development.
 
PS18 said:
Cringing at the Vieira comparisons (more the headline, admittedly). Not sure the Arsenal youth guy has really seen Pogba play more than once/twice to be honest.
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I've seen Pogba a fair few times and there is merit to that comparison. Vieira's skill on the ball was underrated, and both have a very similar running style.
 
SecondFig said:
Dunno, I've seen a lot of people rubbishing the Viera comparison, calling lazy and saying it's based purely on his being a tall black French midfielder. But in all honesty, stylistically he's not that dissimilar, he's tough tackling, box to box and strong - but he's also very skilful on the ball, has a decent eye for a pass, and a good eye for goal.

Having said all that, I agree that I think the writer of the piece has only seen him play a few times. Pogba seems to have attracted a bit of attention recently from rival fans - I was reading a few Chelsea fans discussions of the Youth Cup semi-final and there were a lot of complimentary comments about him.
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I don't see the Vieira comparison at all. They do their best work in completely different areas of the pitch IMO.
 
datura said:
As often with you, I don't really see your point. Morrison and Tunnicliffe were preferred BEFORE the youth cup run, and have featured during it too, which would indicate to most rational people that they are currently ahead of Pogba in their development.
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That's because your intellectually redundant? ..how do you know Pogba didn't have a knock? How do you know there wasn't family issues? etc...listen, your not micky phelan...drop the ego. If they were the same type of players then maybe you would have a point, but maybe the coaching staff preferred a different type of player to compliment the ever changing reserve team. At the end of the day, the reserve team and academy 9/10 is basically the same thing with players a year or two older. It's very rare older players play in the reserve to makes it any kind of a challenge and the times Pogbas played in the reserves, he's handled it as you would expect. However even Morrisons in the youth cup...so what do we read into it?

On18 February 2011 he was handed the no.42 shirt ahead of United's FA Cup clash against Crawley Town. When you look at the last reserve outting, we had players coming back like James, Petrucci (badly) needing games, Norwood in good form, Ajose...the depth is really our biggest strength and our biggest 'problem'....perhaps.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I don't see the Vieira comparison at all. They do their best work in completely different areas of the pitch IMO.
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Agreed, Pogba (at the moment at least) plays much higher up the pitch and is undoubtedly a more offensive midfielder than Vieira was.

And clearly the main basis for the comparison is that Pogba is a tall lanky black French central midfielder, but (imo) there is at least some substance to the comparison
 
Striker10 said:
That's because your intellectually redundant? ..how do you know Pogba didn't have a knock? How do you know there wasn't family issues? etc...listen, your not micky phelan...drop the ego. If they were the same type of players then maybe you would have a point, but maybe the coaching staff preferred a different type of player to compliment the ever changing reserve team. At the end of the day, the reserve team and academy 9/10 is basically the same thing with players a year or two older. It's very rare older players play in the reserve to makes it any kind of a challenge and the times Pogbas played in the reserves, he's handled it as you would expect. However even Morrisons in the youth cup...so what do we read into it?

On18 February 2011 he was handed the no.42 shirt ahead of United's FA Cup clash against Crawley Town. When you look at the last reserve outting, we had players coming back like James, Petrucci (badly) needing games, Norwood in good form, Ajose...the depth is really our biggest strength and our biggest
'problem'....perhaps.
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The reserves are the next stage in the development of players. The Youth Cup is fairly irrelevant as the best eligible players are always selected as the club value it highly. I still don't really think you have any merit in your post, but we generally don't agree on anything so will leave it there.
 
SecondFig said:
Agreed, Pogba (at the moment at least) plays much higher up the pitch and is undoubtedly a more offensive midfielder than Vieira was.

And clearly the main basis for the comparison is that Pogba is a tall lanky black French central midfielder, but (imo) there is at least some substance to the comparison
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I recently mentioned that I hoped he might be a better version of Abou Diaby.

That ticks the tall, black, lanky, French central midfielder boxes whilst allowing for his more attacking style of play. Not bad, eh? ;)
 
I see a lot of Carrick in Pogba. Far more then any Viera comparisons, which I think are way off the mark.
 
Don't think any of these comparisons are particularly close and can't think of one myself. He's a quick footed, powerful, box to box passer with an eye for goal...nope, still nothing.
 
Ubik said:
Don't think any of these comparisons are particularly close and can't think of one myself. He's a quick footed, powerful, box to box passer with an eye for goal...nope, still nothing.
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Er... spot on!
 
He could play a similar role for us that Yaya Toure does for City, he's got all the right attributes and we've learned the hard way how deadly a player like that can be when he's given licence to do something other than destroy, which is the case playing alongside Tunnicliffe. Fletcher has had success in that role as well so it's not like it's without precedent.
 
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