Very much so. Football is coming more and more like a religion, and there are many who say religion brainwashed some. I think a lot of football watchers are not as in control of their opinions as they like to think they are. These opinions are often shaped by narrative. Largely because we don’t have the time to watch as much football as we would like, so we rely on others to fill in the gaps, and just the fact that we’re in an age where we are overloaded with information in general.
Manchester United finished second last season. Didn’t have anyone in the PL team, except De Gea. All the best players in the league played for teams worse than us. We still came out of the season with a weird feeling of failure.
The thing is, including City, Liverpool, Chelsea etc - United are the only team that is demanded to win the league. If any other team finishes second, they will be seen to have had a good season. Even.City after spending loads, or Liverpool. A second place finish will never be spun as a negative. But we’re a different club. We’ve won so much that unless we win, we are spoken of in the context of underachievement. That rarely applies to anyone else, so individuals like Pogba are already working against the narrative of failing. I’ve said before, but last year and before, I suspect your average pundit would say someone like Mousa Dembele was a better player than Pogba. No chance he is, but Pogba can’t meet their mythical expectation, yet Dembele has exceeded the more modest ones they put on him. So he’s showered with praise, Pogba less so.
And finally Modric. I’ve said all year that’s I think Pogba is better than him. I do, but I understand why that will be seen as controversial. In my opinion, that too has a lot to do with narrative and expectation. Modric has far less expected of him as an individual. And then his team has been a runaway success on the biggest stage for the last few years. Pogba could never match that. Take the recent game against Cardiff. I think most people think Pogba player ‘well’, but there seems to be a consensus that ‘he wasn’t even at his best’, or ‘he didn’t even have a GREAT game’. What they mean, is that by Pogba standard, he hasn’t had a great game. The truth, in my opinion, is that a Paul Pogba ‘great’ game, and a Luka Modric ‘great’ game are of different standards. In terms of demand an expectation. Modric would have had to do no more than Pogba against Cardiff to be seen as having had a great game. With Pogba, it’s kind of ‘good, but let’s not get carried away, there’s more to come’. In summary, a lot of Modric performances in recent years would not be seen as good enough for Pogba, not unless the rest of Pogba’s team also played as well as Real and we were as successful. Modric is seen as better as he always plays well, but I think there’s subconsciously a lower bar for him to meet to play well than there is for Pogba. A lot of Modric’s good games might just be about enough to not criticise Pogba and say he was alright. But when coupled with trophies, he’s seen as better.
I’ve said before, but nothing proves this more than the widespread lauding of Pogba’s World Cup. That’s what happens when you’re part of a winning team. He did nothing special, kept it simple for the most part, and if France went out second round, I believe the narrative would have been that he ‘didn’t do enough’. However, after they win, the ‘experts’ say ‘that’s the Pogba we want to see every week, keep it simple’. But when he explodes at the Etihad and scores two goals to win the game, ‘that’s the Pogba we want to see every week’. Two very different Pogba’s. The reality is they don’t really know what they want. I think it’s a simple formula - they want him to make United win everything again. That’s the bar for him. Not the bar for Dembele, Modric etc. Just Pogba. I can guarantee that Pogba would draw nothing like the same praise if he played every week for us like he did for France.
All in my opinion, of course.