6
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 37
- Goals
- 6
- Assists
- 16
- Yellow cards
- 5
- Red cards
- 1
- Status
Pogba is a Lampard type midfielder. Jose's persistence with playing Pogba in a 2 stems from his belief that Pogba has the attributes to play in a 2 if given enough experience there. Jose also would love to have an in form Lingard as the no.10 and Pogba in the same team. After the Newcastle horror show I've no doubt Pogba will never be played in a 2 again and I believe we'll start winning again as a result even if Lingard is the one who gets sacraficed
Something seems strange. If he was really ill since a few days back, Jose wouldn't have said in his press conference that Pogba will feature.
It’s worrying mate.
There's an article from Danny Higginbotam I read today, he makes the claim that the game has moved on from your typical box to box midfielder archetype, a midfielder thats always expected to do both, that the game is much quicker and in particular when you're playing against quicker opponents, especially the younger new breed of midfielders that seem to specialise in a certain something rather than do it all. He basically sais to expect Pogba to do what he's been doing he'd have to be Eden Hazard and Kante at the same time, influencing the game at the front but then getting back to stop the attacks to. Is this article crap or do you think there's some merit in it, is this because Pogba specialises in attack rather than defensive duties or is it a symptom of how Mourinho likes to play the game and what he expects his players to do
Is he really ill, or is there something going on behind the scenes. i wonder. Mourinho says he definitely plays in his press conference yesterday and today he has taken ill, could be true, I suppose.
Is it odd that the club would feel the need to tweet this 5 hours before kick off? Do they usually do this with injured players?
From what we know, I'm guessing the situation is something like:
Pogba's been struggling with a virus.
Mourinho chose to play him anyway because we just don't have the numbers to play without him.
Mourinho said the reports of a rift were bollocks and Pogba knows he hasn't played well. Hoped he'd pass a fitness test for today.
Pogba still feeling ill and decided it's best to pull out than play another energy zapped performance and get more criticism.
Club know make it known he's got an illness but don't mention that it's been hanging around since last week as it questions why we played him in the first place.
Pogba's been struggling with a virus.
Mourinho chose to play him anyway because we just don't have the numbers to play without him.
Mourinho said the reports of a rift were bollocks and Pogba knows he hasn't played well. Hoped he'd pass a fitness test for today.
Pogba still feeling ill and decided it's best to pull out than play another energy zapped performance and get more criticism.
Club know make it known he's got an illness but don't mention that it's been hanging around since last week as it questions why we played him in the first place.
Get ahead of the news cycle. An official line early is better than "where is Pogba" all over the media when the players arrive.
No chance Mourinho says he plays and then doesn't, that would just be crazy.
He's ill it's just 1 of those things. He isn't stupid enough to feck around with the team especially with no Herrera or Fellaini either.
This does make the most sense to be fair.
Mourinho may have thought yesterday that Pogba would have been feeling well enough to play, or may well have been waiting on a late fitness test but optimistic that he'd pass it. Theres no point in putting a player in the firing line for another poor performance if he's clearly not feeling well enough to play. Even if he was on the bench and came on for 20 minutes or so and played like crap, it'd cause a lot more issues and speculation than it's worth.
And announce it early in the day to head off the inevitable journalist 'rift' bullshit.
Yeah what I was thinking. Get in ahead of the fall out stories.
I think I would still rather they stayed consistent though. It gives off the impression the club is too adversely affected by their Pogba stories.
So now Pogba is feigning illness and refusing to play after another furious bust-up with Mourinho over his defensive duties!
Get rid!
Get rid!
Pogba was dropped, in my opinion. "I need to get better" sounds like talking about performances and not the illness.
Him playing and training with illness is dangerous to the rest of the squad, isn't it? Could spread out if not careful enough.
Him playing and training with illness is dangerous to the rest of the squad, isn't it? Could spread out if not careful enough.
Makes sense. Good shout.
nah he's not been dropped.
Imagine the headlines if the lineup came and out of sudden Pogba isn't in squad.
"Pogba falling with Mourinho over his defensive duties"
"Pogba furious with Mourinho and seeks out"
"Madrid are in the race to sign "furious" Pogba"
"Mourinho drop Pogba of his plans as he prepare to launch a bid for that Serie A midfielder"
"Mourinho has lost the dressing room. Players have turned on him and United are in massive crisis"
"Moyes ready to take on United job again and complete his 6 years plan after dressing room falling with Mourinho"
Well, maybe the last one is somewhat OTT but the rest could have been the headlines tomorrow.
Agreed. If he was dropped, it would be to the bench, not out of the squad entirely.
Something really strange in all this.
You know what, Lukaku could do with some crossing into the box...
Very strange. 'I need to get better' suggests a response to Mourinho's saying Pogba's form hasnt been good enough.
Don't feck this up José. Lose Pogba and youre in deep shit fella.
Don't feck this up José. Lose Pogba and youre in deep shit fella.
You know what, Lukaku could do with some crossing into the box...
Moyes will assure him to get +80 crosses a game. He's expert in this.
Shame Pogba's not involved today. I hope he's not involved in some spat with Jose... People can say what they like about Pogba, about him not being great defensively or positionally, but he's still the best player in our squad by a margin in my book.
So he isn't good enough/committed enough/interested enough in taking on real defensive responsibility? Really, who gives a shit. I just keep thinking how utterly wasted he is back there. He's an Iniesta type player for me - he plays where he plays, which is somewhere between midfield and attack. He's not a "number 10", whatever people think that is, he's not a deep lying midfielder, or a box to box runner like Viera or Keane, he's Iniesta's replacement, and Barcelona will be all to happy to take him off our hands.
So he isn't good enough/committed enough/interested enough in taking on real defensive responsibility? Really, who gives a shit. I just keep thinking how utterly wasted he is back there. He's an Iniesta type player for me - he plays where he plays, which is somewhere between midfield and attack. He's not a "number 10", whatever people think that is, he's not a deep lying midfielder, or a box to box runner like Viera or Keane, he's Iniesta's replacement, and Barcelona will be all to happy to take him off our hands.
People are no doubt gonna look into this too much, but the only thing strange is that he feels the need to tweet this because of the media. If it wasn't for the bullshit the media had been spouting then he wouldn't feel the need to say why he's out today. This tweet for me only solidifies what José said about the media spouting crap, because if any of it was remotely true and Pogba felt unhappy in his choice about coming to United, do you not think he wouldn't tweet and let the speculation grow more over him being out today?
What do you find strange about it?
Yes, he wrote "gutted", not something foreign man would say, doesn't matter how much time he spend in England.
If something was really up, I just don't think all parties would be singing from the same hymn sheet.
Mourinho: No problem, he's not playing well and he knows it.
Raiola: You're all mental, there's no issues with Pogba.
Club: Pogba is ill and won't be playing today.
Journalists: Pogba is ill and was also ill against Newcastle.
Pogba: I'm ill and I'm gutted I'm not playing.
Strange that he used that word . He could have said he's sad.
I really don't know what to think but if indeed there are problems between Jose and Pogba, I'd rather it be Jose who made way imo.
There's no problems, don't believe the media.
I don't. its just hypothetically I'd rather Pogba.
Anyone suggesting that there are issues with Jose and Pogba should watch the embargoed press conference from the Huddersfield match. Jose's very clear (in a positive way) what the issues have been lately.
He’s fecking ill guys, give it a rest.
Did you watch the press conference? There was a lot more than this said.
Just watch this and stop trying to make a story out of nothing.
Dunno about the UK but Ireland has been fecked since Xmas with this ''Australian Flu''. I've been lucky not to get it but half my co-workers did and they were fecked for like 2-3 weeks. Would explain why he was so shit and ''lazy'' at Newcastle.
That's (paraphrasing) what he said about Pogba's situation. The rest was calling out the quality of the journalism and punditry.
I came down with it on new years day and it fecked me up for about 3 or 4 days and then hung around for about 2 weeks before I felt normal again. Still got a cough nearly 2 months later.
To be honest this all just smacks of overblown media crap. But, there is a history of this sort of thing happening virtually everywhere Mourinho has been in the past so you can understand some peoples skepticism or confusion about the situation. Either way we don't need the scrunity when we are going into possibly one of the most important periods of make of break football we've been a part of
- Status