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2016-17 Performances

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6.3 Season Average Rating
Appearances
51
Goals
9
Assists
6
Yellow cards
10
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No he didn't. He was soundly criticized in France for the WC in 2014.... but given slack because he was very young. Had little to no impact. Fast forward 2 years and his performances for NT haven't been better. He was soundly criticized coming into the Euro and for the Euro in France. Some of it is on Deschamps, but a lot of it is on Pogba. I think the pressure has been too much on him there. It's very different than the pressure you feel in club, regardless of how big the club is.

IMO, he's been OK but nowhere near the level of play he showed at Juventus and, thus, hasn't met expectations. He just doesn't have the same freedom and hasn't adjusted. The free players on France are Benzema, Griezmann and now Payet. I'm hoping Pogba gets more freedom... but he's going to have to earn it. Matuidi is getting old and hasn't played. So Kante coming in as a DM should free him up in a 4231 or 442. But regardless, Pogba is going to have to figure himself out and show it on the pitch for France. Deschamps wants him to handle the basics he needs and then he will free him up... wants him to earn it.
 
One last post regarding France, etc... Juve played exclusively a 352 which is a very specialized tactic. I think it was difficult for Pogba to adjust from club to NT because of that. Now with Man Utd, Pogba will play a similar role and similar tactics than what he will see with France. That will go a long ways to helping his NT performances. You get very limited time to prepare and play for NT... so the less you have to adjust, the better you will do.
 
So happy to have a player that is capable of shaking his man and always thinking forward instead of the pass it back nonsense of the past few seasons. Makes it look so easy sometimes. Think he dealt with the pressure of his high profile move and first start while putting in a full shift. Credit to Jose for having trust in him too. The sooner Rooney breaks Charlton's record the better. Think it will be much easier for him to be benched and another player coming in that is better suited to play in Front of Pogba in MF or even Pogba moving further up.
 
Kill 'em all said:
Yaya is a much more limited player.
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Thats far from the truth. Yaya is a complete player and prime Yaya was unstoppable. I hope and expect Pogba to be even better but if he becomes as good as him (at his best) i'll have no complaints
 
Borys said:
I don't expect him to be that good in the next games because there will be a few guys closing him down, but it will create more space for the rest of the team. That's why such players make the others raise their game level.
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Standing off him is a better approach to stopping him than closing him down, he's got incredible feet.
 
sportsczy said:
No he didn't. He was soundly criticized in France for the WC in 2014.... but given slack because he was very young. Had little to no impact. Fast forward 2 years and his performances for NT haven't been better. He was soundly criticized coming into the Euro and for the Euro in France. Some of it is on Deschamps, but a lot of it is on Pogba. I think the pressure has been too much on him there. It's very different than the pressure you feel in club, regardless of how big the club is.
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Really? I thought the team as a whole performed well at the world cup. The team just felt like it clicked, though couldn't get the result to go further.
 
RooneyLegend said:
Standing off him is a better approach to stopping him than closing him down, he's got incredible feet.
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It won't matter. He's a good passer of the ball too, so standing off him would be a doubled edged sword. Or he'll just run at the defenders after picking up a head of steam and then be even harder to stop. He's in that category with Messi/Ronaldo where he's almost unplayable. I don't think he has the consistency yet to be in that same category as Messi/Ronaldo, but he will soon get there. Just tell stupid Fellaini to stay back at all times and let Pogba roam forwards.
 
Loublaze said:
Thats far from the truth. Yaya is a complete player and prime Yaya was unstoppable. I hope and expect Pogba to be even better but if he becomes as good as him (at his best) i'll have no complaints
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Yaya never had the energy that Pogba has. Even in his prime he'd be fecked after going on one of his runs. Pogba can do that all game.
 
Shark said:
Yaya never had the energy that Pogba has. Even in his prime he'd be fecked after going on one of his runs. Pogba can do that all game.
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Again, that's far from the truth and it's become almost a default criticism to make of him in recent years since he hit the right side of 30. Its revisionism
 
Pogba can be far more of a player than prime Yaya because he is not a tactical liability. Like clockwork Yaya was exposed against nippy and energetic top drawer European midfields - Gundogan in particular ruthlessly twisted the knife on Yaya's various tactical and physical deficiencies.
 
In Rainbows said:
Really? I thought the team as a whole performed well at the world cup. The team just felt like it clicked, though couldn't get the result to go further.
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France did well... but Matuidi was the driving force of that midfield. Valbuena and Benzema were the standouts on the attack. Griezmann and Pogba were very average in WC 2014. Did ok, but neither was ready for that level of intensity in each game. Pogba was on a yellow and almost took a red card stupidly in one game, which drew the ire of Deschamps.

Deschamps is old school Italian in training. Tactical positioning and wherewithal are very important to him. He's been pushing Pogba to stay disciplined as a CM first. I went to a game and he's on Pogba constantly. Yells "you're a midfield not a striker Paul!" a lot. I think it will do Pogba a lot of good tbh. When you play the truly elite teams, you will get exposed if you aren't very disciplined.
 
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GlastonSpur said:
You've had an away game against a weak team and home game against a middling team. Don't you think it's an exaggeration to call winning both of those "a fantastic job"?
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It's not an exaggeration. We played 3. Won 3...despite playing with new players, in key positions.
Jose was brought in to get results/wins....not look pretty and play like Arsenal.
Thus far, he is achieving everything he promised.

Yes, he has done a fantastic job and I will support him and our team while they do a good job (just as I did with LVG, until that disastrous December).

Re: Pogba
He has played only 1 game, but I can already see why Jose was so desperate to bring Pogba into our team. He was rampant.
 
I've already watched his individual highlights video a few times since the game. He's an absolute joy to watch.

By the way, I love how a Real Madrid fan has the 2nd highest number of posts in this thread despite how obsessively crazy the resident United fans are here on Pogba.
 
Borys said:
I don't expect him to be that good in the next games because there will be a few guys closing him down, but it will create more space for the rest of the team. That's why such players make the others raise their game level.
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I dont know, Soton pressed the heck out of him Friday and couldnt get it off of him and they had a midfield overload. Alot of time it was about 2 or more players pressing him and he just went through them or shielded it easily and made a killer pass.
 
I have only watched the odd game with Pogba since he left, really. Must say I'm taken by surprise at how sublime his technique and controll are in limited space. All those times he shrug off his marker with skill or power, he finds himself in acres of space and we really need to exploit that as a modus operandi. It's just one game of course, but we should get a lot of joy from playing to Pogba's strengths.

Can't help but think what if, instead of Rooney, we get another body in midfield who knows how to catch the ball and move his legs. Looking tasty so far!
 
I wonder if he'll move forwards into Rooney's position at some point. I'm not sure he's cut out for the holding role in the 4-2-3-1 alongside Fellaini. Its great when we've got loads of the ball and he can roam further forwards, but he might need to be very disciplined against the big boys. I'd actually prefer to see Hererra or Schneiderlin or Schweini (poor old Schweini....) alongside Fellaiin and him move foward a bit later in the year. Will be watching him closely to see if he starts to go missing a bit later in the year because of this.
 
Ricardo de la Vega said:
I wonder if he'll move forwards into Rooney's position at some point. I'm not sure he's cut out for the holding role in the 4-2-3-1 alongside Fellaini. Its great when we've got loads of the ball and he can roam further forwards, but he might need to be very disciplined against the big boys. I'd actually prefer to see Hererra or Schneiderlin or Schweini (poor old Schweini....) alongside Fellaiin and him move foward a bit later in the year. Will be watching him closely to see if he starts to go missing a bit later in the year because of this.
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I think he's someone who should always start deep with license to go forward. This allows him to drive through the midfield and take out 2-3 opposition players, compared to receiving the ball further ahead where he can't just bulldoze through the opposition CMs.
 
Ricardo de la Vega said:
I wonder if he'll move forwards into Rooney's position at some point. I'm not sure he's cut out for the holding role in the 4-2-3-1 alongside Fellaini. Its great when we've got loads of the ball and he can roam further forwards, but he might need to be very disciplined against the big boys. I'd actually prefer to see Hererra or Schneiderlin or Schweini (poor old Schweini....) alongside Fellaiin and him move foward a bit later in the year. Will be watching him closely to see if he starts to go missing a bit later in the year because of this.
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It's not a holding role, it's a box to box role, there'd be little point in playing him too far forward anyway I feel, he's one of the few genuinely class all rounded midfielders in the world today, why restrict his defensive abilities when he can contribute to both aspects of the game. With Pogba and a defensive midfielder we can afford to play a proper attacking midifelder.
 
I really hope Pogba is never moved into the 10 hole. Juventus thought he could be that as well to start last season and it didn't work out at all. Pogba is at his best when he has a lot of room to run because he has much better technique than all the other CMs to go along with his physical attributes. He just blows by people. When you put him in very crowded areas, you're neutralizing a lot of his physical advantages.
 
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sportsczy said:
I really hope Pogba is never moved into the 10 hole. Juventus thought he could be that as well to start last season and it didn't work out at all. Pogba is at his best when he has a lot of room to run because he has much better technique than all the other CMs to go along with his physical attributes. He just blows by people. When you put him in very crowded areas, you're neutralizing a lot of his physical advantages.
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Good point.
 
ivaldo said:
It's not a holding role, it's a box to box role, there'd be little point in playing him too far forward anyway I feel, he's one of the few genuinely class all rounded midfielders in the world today, why restrict his defensive abilities when he can contribute to both aspects of the game. With Pogba and a defensive midfielder we can afford to play a proper attacking midifelder.
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A by gone era some called it when many said 442 was dead, if Pogba is allowed the driving role like keane and butt, 442 could work a treat 99 style, people say its 4231, its still almost 4411 with rooney playing off zlaten. Butt sat deep and keane rampaged forward, if we are honest keane scholes butt beckham and giggs should have been the guys fergie built his team around if he was going away from 442. Obvious the dream team of a DM next to pogba, with mata, mkh and martial supporting zlaten, but for now stuck with rooney.
 
Footyislife said:
It won't matter. He's a good passer of the ball too, so standing off him would be a doubled edged sword. Or he'll just run at the defenders after picking up a head of steam and then be even harder to stop. He's in that category with Messi/Ronaldo where he's almost unplayable. I don't think he has the consistency yet to be in that same category as Messi/Ronaldo, but he will soon get there. Just tell stupid Fellaini to stay back at all times and let Pogba roam forwards.
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His passing is good but far from amazing. If they stand off him, hold their positions he won't be bursting through them, there's almost no midfielder that can do that. Thankfully for him, the prem is filled with midfielders who like to win the ball back at every given opportunity, he'll dribble around them and attack the space they've left behind them. If a manager advises his players to close him down they'll be making a grave mistake.
 
RedFish said:
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Christ, what a video. The amount of work behind that.... was it the Making a Murderer crew who made it?:D

But watching old footages of Zidane, he really reminds of this perfect gentleman:

Louis Litt
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Zinedine Zidane
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Let's get real a little bit... Pogba is nowhere even near Zidane's level. Zidane controlled the flow of the game against EVERYONE. Brazil, Barcelona, Milan, Netherlands, etc. Didn't matter. The bigger the stage and the better the opponent... the more dominant Zidane was.

Pogba doesn't have the control, vision or technical ability of Zidane. Heck, pretty much nobody does in the history of football. It's a very unfair comparison and one without merit. Does Pogba do some of the same tricks as Zidane did? Sure. I bet you i could dig up some Cesc Fabregas tricks and make him look like Zidane. Tricks wasn't what Zidane was about... it was control. Regardless of the competition or circumstances, Zidane always controlled the pace of the game.
 
sportsczy said:
Let's get real a little bit... Pogba is nowhere even near Zidane's level. Zidane controlled the flow of the game against EVERYONE. Brazil, Barcelona, Milan, Netherlands, etc. Didn't matter. The bigger the stage and the better the opponent... the more dominant Zidane was.

Pogba doesn't have the control, vision or technical ability of Zidane. Heck, pretty much nobody does in the history of football. It's a very unfair comparison and one without merit. Does Pogba do some of the same tricks as Zidane did? Sure. I bet you i could dig up some Cesc Fabregas tricks and make him look like Zidane. Tricks wasn't what Zidane was about... it was control. Regardless of the competition or circumstances, Zidane always controlled the pace of the game.
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Zidane signed for Juve when he was 24, and Pogba is still 23 now...

That type of control Zidane was capable of developed throughout his career.
 
Zidane and Pogba aren't the same type of player.

Iniesta and Zidane is a better shout.
 
Against Soton he seemed to play in a "free 8" role, which suited him and could be his role here. In terms of comparisons, I don't really think Zidane is fair - Gerrard with a better touch seems closer.
 
sportsczy said:
I really hope Pogba is never moved into the 10 hole. Juventus thought he could be that as well to start last season and it didn't work out at all. Pogba is at his best when he has a lot of room to run because he has much better technique than all the other CMs to go along with his physical attributes. He just blows by people. When you put him in very crowded areas, you're neutralizing a lot of his physical advantages.
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I agree. It's actually great to have someone in our midfield who can carry the ball under pressure and then play a good pass as compared to the likes of Fellaini and Rooney have the ball bounce of them and getting disposed in every one on one.

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Bwuk said:
Zidane and Pogba aren't the same type of player.

Iniesta and Zidane is a better shout.
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Exactly.

Pogba is a mishmash of several players and will constantly draw comparisons with great midfielders throughout his career. Sometimes Zidane, sometimes Vieira, sometimes Robson, without being any of them.

No point trying to pigeon hole him.
 
unitedbhoy said:
Rooney :lol:

It wouldn't surprise me if his teamates start to find siuations not to pass to him. Sad
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The video really sums it up well. Look how Pogba handles pressing and then look at donkeys like Rooney and Fellaini. We really need to find a great defensive partner for Fellaini that's also really good at handling pressure and maybe even play a good pass every now and then.
 
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