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Paul Pogba France flag

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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I'm all for defending a young midfielder who gets a bit carried away - he does need more time. However, the idea of an emoji adding extra pressure to a professional footballer is not on in my books. That's just a terrible excuse.

People should stop making excuses for him and accept he has these bad performances in him that he needs to get rid off. I think the idea of Pogba being our best player is still there to be seen but there's no doubt that he's a Man United/PL winning team level midfielder. Also, it's his first season.
 
He's still not quite up to speed with the league. He excelled in a league where you get more time on the ball, and he has excelled against lesser teams who give him space to make his move, but against anyone who presses him early and hard he struggles. Give him a year and he'll have adapted.
 
Bepi said:
In his post-match interview tonight after Juve 2-1 loss at Fiorentina, Chiellini said Juve are finding difficult life without Pogba because he is the Lebron James of football, his work being impressive even when not in the flashlight.
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Sounds more like Kawhi. ESPN is usually slobbering on LeBron's dick 24/7, he's never not in the spotlight.
 
I think the issue is he gets way too hyped up and thinking he wants to be the main guy in those games so he tries to do something special. I know it's "just a haircut", but it's like he gets a special cut for big games and just wants to do something "big". Just keep shit simple and play your natural game without wanting to take the limelight like he does for 90% of the other games. If he scored that early chance then I have no doubt that he would've gone on and dominated the game. Instead it got to his head, and then lost focus on set pieces and shit, kept trying to make up for any sloppy piece of play and it just snowballed. Calmed down a bit in the second but still far from his best.
 
No beating around the bush, he was absolutely shocking today and it's the worst performance of any player so far this season who spent 90 minutes on the pitch for us.

Onwards and upwards though.
 
DavidG said:
No beating around the bush, he was absolutely shocking today and it's the worst performance of any player so far this season who spent 90 minutes on the pitch for us.

Onwards and upwards though.
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Rooney has performed worse
 
Yeh he was shocking today. The worst bits were him trying to over complicate things after the handball. Hes trying too much to show how good he is as a player. He really does need to find the right balance of when to keep it simple (just pass it instead of trying to take on three people on the half way line) and when to do the hollywood stuff where needed.

Saying that, hes been good up until this point and that was his worst performance since returning. Hopefully he learns and bounces back against Stoke.
 
Felt for the kid today. Quite clearly put pressure on himself to perform and his mistakes affected his confidence really bad.

He's usually quite a confident (and perhaps arrogant) player, so to see him break down like that was a little sad to see.

Oh well, the experience will serve him well and he'll get better. We all know he's outrageously talented. Just needs to learn not to chase the game so much in the bigger matches.
 
2 steps forward 1step back. Not worried about him though, he has shown what he is capable of and there are indicators of what he can become. Will be another season or 2 till he starts to hit his peak
 
He was shit, as simple as that. The worrying thing is that not only was the performance but he seemed lost out there, in terms of position, in terms of attitude.
Talent and ability have never been in question but yesterday he showed a big weakness in terms of psychological strength
 
edcunited1878 said:
He really reminded me of Ronaldo in his early years at United today. Gets caught up in the moment and tries to force things when the situation doesn't call for it. It's all happening around him at pace, but he makes it faster than it needs to be. Instead of letting the match come to him and being measured and steady with his play, he wanted to make the pass, make the goal, make the play. He has to trust himself and be patient in these big games to put his mind right. When he missed his big chance in the first half, it impacted him and instead of kicking on from there he panics and gives away the penalty. Then he again tried too hard from that point on and was really rattled.
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The 19 year old Ronaldo? Hardly a like with like comparison now is it, considering Paul is now 23 and the worlds most expensive player.
 
Pogba really seems to struggle against Liverpool's pressing game. In the 180 minutes I've seen him play against Liverpool, he has had exactly one good moment (the cross for Zlatan). Otherwise he's done absolutely nothing productive in these 2 games.

He's indecisive and keeps making mistakes when he specifically is targeted by a high energy side. Unlike Xavi or Pirlo, it takes him too many touches to control a difficult ball, and he isn't a fast thinker that can quickly maneuver his way out of a press. That's why being a deep-lying playmaker doesn't suit his style.
 
Got too excited for the match I think. Tried to force himself into becoming the match star. Ended up playing like headless chicken mostly.

And feck those hairstyles and twitter emoji honours.
 
Infordin said:
Pogba really seems to struggle against Liverpool's pressing game. In the 180 minutes I've seen him play against Liverpool, he has had exactly one good moment (the cross for Zlatan). Otherwise he's done absolutely nothing productive in these 2 games.

He's indecisive and keeps making mistakes when he specifically is targeted by a high energy side. Unlike Xavi or Pirlo, it takes him too many touches to control a difficult ball, and he isn't a fast thinker that can quickly maneuver his way out of a press. That's why being a deep-lying playmaker doesn't suit his style.
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Totally agreed. Against Liverpool, they will press and overcrowd you. You don't have time on the ball. One of this lost possession almost ended up in a goal. He may think he is one of the best but he is far from it. These games suits midfielder who moves without ball. Look at Martial and Pogba, both of them struggle to make an impact against Liverpool.
 
Infordin said:
Pogba really seems to struggle against Liverpool's pressing game. In the 180 minutes I've seen him play against Liverpool, he has had exactly one good moment (the cross for Zlatan). Otherwise he's done absolutely nothing productive in these 2 games.
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Their counter-pressing is probably the worst and most physical type of pressing to play against. He's the wrong build to play against fast/strong players. He loves to dominate on the ball and they give you no time.

He wants to be free and push into midfield on the ball. When somebody is in front of him, he struggles. But today it was the pressing, as I've said in other threads this is an absolutely awful type of system to play against. Especially for him who wants to grab the ball and have it at his feet to get comfortable into a game.

Thems the breaks really. He was not good, but gotta take the good with the bad with him. He will grow.
 
Ashley R1+O said:
Their counter-pressing is probably the worst and most physical type of pressing to play against. He's the wrong build to play against fast/strong players. He loves to dominate on the ball and they give you no time.

He wants to be free and push into midfield on the ball. When somebody is in front of him, he struggles. But today it was the pressing, as I've said in other threads this is an absolutely awful type of system to play against. Especially for him who wants to grab the ball and have it at his feet to get comfortable into a game.

Thems the breaks really. He was not good, but gotta take the good with the bad with him. He will grow.
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I am not sure where you got this from. If you compare L'pool pressing in second half in the away game at Anfield vs this whole game, this game their pressing is nothing special. Pogba did just fine in that game.

He's not that good in dealing with aerial ball, that's for sure. However, nased on this bad game of him to revise his whole ability is stupid like he can't handle pressing, physical... It's just a bad game, where he let the occasion into his head. Clearly got haunted with the guilt after the penalty call and lost his way after that. Before that he was Okay but underplayed with Carrick being pushed back and our midfield was isolated from defense (with Carrick stuck with the defense unit).

If anything, we need to get him a proper partner who can take responsibility to mix thing up with surging run, long pass, quick pass... like Pogba than solely relying on Pogba to offer (Carrick play making, long passes from the back) these like we are nowadays. Pogba's main concern after this game is his mentality. He needs to learn to get mistake out of his head and move on than let it occupy his head and affect his performance.
 
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balaks said:
He is 24 very soon, the 'kid' excuse is soon gonna be null and void.
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You can't fault his enthusiasm or effort even when it's not going well for him but he seemed to be trying a bit too hard at times yesterday.
 
I want to know where his strength went yesterday. He didn't seem able to overpower Jordan bloody Henderson (well, apart from headlocking him). I know Can and Wijnaldum are both quite strong players (Can especially) but so is Pogba, so I would at least expect him to compete in that department.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
I want to know where his strength went yesterday. He didn't seem able to overpower Jordan bloody Henderson (well, apart from headlocking him). I know Can and Wijnaldum are both quite strong players (Can especially) but so is Pogba, so I would at least expect him to compete in that department.
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He seems to shrink, physically, whenever he has a bad game. Loses all his strength and gets beaten in the air by smaller players. It's all in his head IMO. Will happen less and less as he matures. Hopefully!
 
He's obviously an excellent player, but I think his finishing isn't good enough, nor his defensive work rate and marking at set pieces. Far too often he seems lost and lazy defensively.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
He seems to shrink, physically, whenever he has a bad game. Loses all his strength and gets beaten in the air by smaller players. It's all in his head IMO. Will happen less and less as he matures. Hopefully!
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That handball ruined him I think, even before that he looked nervous, and the penalty happened after he missed a golden chance to score

Hope he bounce back though, I know he is better than this
 
lawliet354 said:
That handball ruined him I think, even before that he looked nervous, and the penalty happened after he missed a golden chance to score

Hope he bounce back though, I know he is better than this
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Yeah, I think he's a much less confident player than you'd think from all the fancy hair and dancing videos. When he's up for it he looks like a man against boys but if he loses his nerve he's a shadow of his usual self. I also think this is one of the reaons why he took so long to settle. He was overwhelmed.
 
Ban said:
He got 5 from me today.

I was expecting lot of kneejerking here and I wasn't wrong.

Guys like @Alex Styles and the rest of the bunch.


Occasion got to him, he wanted to prove himself and do everything by himself but was really poor.
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Sorry. I admit I overreacted. I'm sure he will learn from this.
 
He has been steadily improving over the past few months. Was hoping he'd announce himself big time with a massive performance yesterday but it couldn't have gone any worse. Occasion got the better of him and he was really poor.
 
I think Pool had a wise game plan of marking him and Martial out of the game. Everytime Pogba got the ball he had Henderson and Lallana flying into him. We were far too pedestrian in moving the ball and unfortunately he struggled to deal with that. Looked quite tired at times and his usual burst of pace/dribbling forward just wasn't there today.

I think that early penalty clearly knocked his confidence and he never really recovered.
 
Very frustrating to watch yesterday. Almost always took too long on the ball, which is something he usually gets away with but not against liverpools pressing game. He seems to be determined to hit a Hollywood-pass or beat at least one player every time he gets the ball when in many situations it would benefit the team if he just played a simple quick sidefoot pass. I guess he is still 'adapting to the premier league'.
 
I was livid earlier because of the result so avoided this thread so I wouldn't spout rubbish in the heat of the moment. That being said, he was very poor, looked like he was trying way too hard to impress instead of focusing on the basics. He will learn from this though, these big games are a completely different sport to the easier games where we have time on the ball, he will learn to adapt with experience though, I'm sure.
 
It was a bad game from him, and it's mostly because he's overthinking it & trying too much. With the way Liverpool played, it would have been better to keep it simple, pass and move into space. I think overall as a team, we didn't have the right strategy to bypass the stress, having said that, there's a massive overreaction on here, I mean, you can't have a bad game simply because you cost 89m pounds, a price which you didn't fix it, I don't understand.
 
Sammyjunn said:
Thats the problem, we need more than big games vs Stoke, Hull and Swansea, it's against the top 6 teams where we climb up the table more because we get 3 points and they get 0.
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It's both. Other than top 6 there are 14 more teams we need to beat.
 
Caf always requires the opposite extreme to fight back.

Nobody who called him shite yesterday was being unfair. He was - end of story. I don't remember seeing many (if any) saying he was a poor player in general - possibly questioning his performances in big games at best. There's always an argument of course, it's a discussion forum but it is tiring reading opposition to a blatant fact of life: Pogba was shite against Liverpool.

As usual, the other extreme come flying in and label any justified criticism with 'embarrassing posts', 'we really don't deserve him' and all that other nauseating shite.
 
Ban said:
It's both. Other than top 6 there are 14 more teams we need to beat.
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The difference betwee top 6 and the other 14 is bigger than ever opposed to what people think, the top 6 drops less points vs the bottom clubs than before. We will win those matches with the quality we have, this season it's how you play against other top sides that will mainly determine where you finish.
 
Sammyjunn said:
The difference betwee top 6 and the other 14 is bigger than ever opposed to what people think, the top 6 drops less points vs the bottom clubs than before. We will win those matches with the quality we have, this season it's how you play against other top sides that will mainly determine where you finish.
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Well if we'd won vs Burnley and Stoke for example we would have been higher up the table.
 
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