Kag
Full Member
Exactly what do you think we'll miss?
Take up tiddlywinks, lad.
Exactly what do you think we'll miss?
Take up tiddlywinks, lad.
erm .... we don't look very good with him ... and we looked great today after he went off.
He keeping things simple and showed the odd moment of quality which was what a lot of us were asking him to do. Decent performance. But by no means great or even good. Like, Fellaini came on and gave a similar performance and Pogba is better than Fellaini and so he should be doing more.
Taken from /r/reddevils.
Feel a bit sorry for him. Overplayed him because we desperately needed someone of his quality in the team. His performances have naturally declined due to fatigue and exhaustion and now he's fecking injured. All this after playing in the summer all the way to the Euro finals only to lose. And to top it off, he's the one player who's currently getting the most criticism and abuse from the fans and media alike.
Shame about his injury but if all of our other midfielders are fit i'd dare say we are better without Pogba anyway. I think we would be better a team with a midfield of Herrera and Carrick behind Mhki in a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3 with Carrick in DM with Herrera and Mhki a little more advanced.
Some will say claim we'd be crazy to leave Pogba out but the fact is he has been crap in every big game and average in pretty much all of our other games bar 2 or 3 where he has played well.
People will claim its crazy because it quite blatantly is batshit crazy. His big game performances have been shit but otherwise he's been very good and creates feck load of chances which gets forgotten because Ibra misses all of them.
He repeatedly pings the long ball over the top which any decent midfielder should be capable of doing
I felt we were really lucky with Mata's interception and consequently the goal because it opened up some space and our outfield players were able to pass again. Because as soon as Pogba left, the team looked liked they didn't know what to do with the b all. All good and dandy to run around and make interceptions and keep it simple but when it comes to sending direct passes, long passes between the lines or drive the team forward, we have nobody aside from Pogba to take that responsibility.
He repeatedly pings the long ball over the top which any decent midfielder should be capable of doing. That is the only chances he creates and we would probably have a far more fluid attack without Pogba holding the ball up repeatedly or losing possession.
erm .... we don't look very good with him ... and we looked great today after he went off.
We might have a more dynamic game but the idea that his only contribution is long, direct balls is silly. Of the 1400 players that have played at least 90 minutes across the top 5 leagues, he ranks 17th for average passes per game. 2nd in the Premier League. Ahead of the likes of Kroos, Weigl, Koke, Silva, Modric and many other caf favourites.
Of those 75 passes per game, 5.5 of them are what is categorised as "long passes". The likes of Kroos (8), Alcantara (7), Henderson (7), Alonso (6) make more long passes overall, and as a proportion of their passes either the same proportion or higher are long passes.
That's a long way of saying Pogba makes a feck-tonne of short passes. 70 a game. More than the vast, vast, vast majority in Europe. If that isn't an indication of his influence on our team then I'm not sure what is. It's obviouslt true that making a short pass does not equal influencing the game, but making that volume of passes undoubtedly underlines a level of influence. There's a reason the other midfielders in there are all recognised as key players in their team.
We take it for granted that Pogba has that level of involvement because we hold him to such high standards in every facet of the game - defending, controlling the game, creating, scoring. We do that because he has a vast array of talents and pops up in all areas, but the reality is that one talent for ball circulation is hugely influential for us. We might well be more dynamic but we generally lose a level of control when he's not playing. We've played dominant attacking football throughout this season and that's undoubtedly partly down to Pogba. The fact his fatigue has coincided with our loss of dominance is hardly surprising in that context.
He'll only miss 'boro and the France matches.
Hadn't heard the details of the drama getting back from London before. FFS. Did we not need that.
Hadn't heard the details of the drama getting back from London before. FFS. Did we not need that.
So the first half that we hit the post and dominated and had Rostov pegged basically in their own box the whole.
But we looked better in the second half when Rostov were more in the game, Romero made 2 great saves to save the game for us and we didn't exactly create much, bar the goal.
Stats from manutd.com
HALF-TIME MATCH STATS
Possession: United 78% Rostov 22%
Shots: United 12 Rostov 0
Shots on target: United 2 Rostov 0
Corners: United 6 Rostov 0
FULL-TIME MATCH STATS
Possession: United 69% Rostov 31%
Shots: United 18 Rostov 5
Shots on target: United 4 Rostov 3
Corners: United 6 Rostov 2
But yeah, we looked great.
He's better than Kroos and Modric.
Pogba is the complete midfielder. Height, physicality, strength, dribbling, shooting, short passing, long passing, defending, attacking... He's got it all.
People mistake form for brilliance. It only takes one game to change a million peoples minds. Unfortunately he's not in amazing form at the minute but talent wise? Hes up there with the best in the world.
The only CM I'd say is better would probably be Vidal. He is a dream signing for me.
Overall? I think so.Great post but is he better than Kante?
He's better than Kroos and Modric.
Pogba is the complete midfielder. Height, physicality, strength, dribbling, shooting, short passing, long passing, defending, attacking... He's got it all.
People mistake form for brilliance. It only takes one game to change a million peoples minds. Unfortunately he's not in amazing form at the minute but talent wise? Hes up there with the best in the world.
The only CM I'd say is better would probably be Vidal. He is a dream signing for me.
Sometimes arguments seem to be made based on theory rather than actual performances. The most important skill is to know when and how to utilise your talent.
Have you seen Kroos and Modric much? Despite having no height, being slow, and generally small, they have dominated almost every midfield they have come up against, creating chances, passing forwards, helping in building from the back.
In your list you don't have things like consistency, discipline, and the intuituve understanding of the game's tempo that those 2 have but Pogba at United hasn't shown. They're far more consistent in short passing, attacking passes, and dribbling, at a very high level against any opposition.
That's irrelevant when the reply is to a post saying he's better than the 2 atm.Of those two, one is 27yr old and the other is 31yrs. Pull both of their records at the age of 23/24.
That alone is a testament to Pogba.
Have you seen Kroos and Modric much? Despite having no height, being slow, and generally small, they have dominated almost every midfield they have come up against, creating chances, passing forwards, helping in building from the back.
In your list you don't have things like consistency, discipline, and the intuituve understanding of the game's tempo that those 2 have but Pogba at United hasn't shown. They're far more consistent in short passing, attacking passes, and dribbling, at a very high level against any opposition.
Of those two, one is 27yr old and the other is 31yrs. Pull both of their records at the age of 23/24.
That alone is a testament to Pogba.