[Baxter]

i know it's partly down to different systems but how come a player like Frenkie de Jong seemingly is capable of this then?

I haven’t seen too much of Ajax domestically, but I imagine that it’s much more dominant and with 60-70% of the ball there is much less transitions.

Even in Europe, I thought De Jong played a little deeper, but even then you guys seems light years ahead in terms of ball retention and reducing missplaced passes and turnovers. I would also say say that I think Ajax look at much fitter team too, which there’s no excuse for.

 

[Ajaxsuarez]

Because you hold onto the ball for much longer periods. You don't squander possession straight away and then have to chase the opposition for ages. It tires you out, Neville himself admitted that.

sure, but because of Ajax' high line and press (and Schöne's complete lack of mobility next to him), he's having to act as both the immediate cover in the press and the defensive 'runner' tracking back every time the opponents do get out and break (which happens a good few times a match tbh)

It's highly unlikely that he does it every time and they don't have the same built, De Jong is meant to be more mobile.

I think build's fair, in a sense, and I doubt De Jong even runs at all more, distance-wise, than Pogba does, so makes you wonder whether Pogba is simply just not timing / distributing his movement terribly every game, either due to instructions or quite possibly his own lack of "football intelligence"

He's hot and cold but anyone doubting his contribution in terms of goals/assists is just a moron IMO.

weren't 70% of those goals against bottom 7 pl sides? his only non-penalty goal not against Huddersfield or Bournemouth is the header against Chelsea. I'm not saying he hasn't had value or that scoring penalties is worthless but surely you do need to keep some perspective when looking at any stats like that?

edit: On a completely different level but the situation reminds me a bit of Urby Emanuelson at Ajax (I get that this is a joke of a comparison). He was an incredibly technical, had a beautiful left foot, quick with a great turn of pace, had a fantastic slide tackle, and had trickery that could turn opposition players inside out. could play everywhere from leftback, leftwing, to attacking mid. but somehow despite seemingly having everything needed to be a fantastic player just never was able to make a mark on games whatsoever, except for short periods where everything seemed to come together and he'd score worldy after worldy.

I always felt that his issue was just that he had zero intelligence of what to do on and off the ball combined with a striking lack of initiative to get involved anyway. I've compared it to a beautiful ferrari, v8 engine or whatever, but tires with zero grip. so despite all the ingredients in the world he just couldn't affect football matches. a beautiful footballer but an average football *player*.

i don't watch nearly enough of Pogba regularly to say whether this is at all fair whatsoever. i just know that whenever I do watch United, I never see him properly impact the game for a full 90 minutes. Even at his best, I see a brilliant moment every 15 minutes or so, which can be enough to change games if the rest of the team is a coherent unit, but that would be pretty textbook "luxury player" which isn't ever how I saw Pogba turning out

 

[JPRouve]

I think build's fair, in a sense, and I doubt De Jong even runs at all more, distance-wise, than Pogba does, so makes you wonder whether Pogba is simply just not timing / distributing his movement terribly every game, either due to instructions or quite possibly his own lack of "football intelligence"

Pogba's main flaw is his positioning and defensive anticipation, even in his good games, when he defends well it's by physically dominating the opponents. While offensively he is a lot smarter, reads and anticipate very well that's why Pogba isn't actually that complete as a midfielder.

To give you an Ajax comparison, he is more Van der Vaart than Sneijder.

 

[Ajaxsuarez]

Pogba's main flaw is his positioning and defensive anticipation, even in his good games, when he defends well it's by physically dominating the opponents. While offensively he is a lot smarter, reads and anticipate very well that's why Pogba isn't an actually that complete as a midfielder.

To give you an Ajax comparison, he is more Van der Vaart than Sneijder.

I think the edit to my comment basically made precisely that distinction actually!

i don't watch nearly enough of Pogba regularly to say whether this is at all fair whatsoever. i just know that whenever I do watch United, I never see him properly impact the game for a full 90 minutes. Even at his best, I see a brilliant moment every 15 minutes or so, which can be enough to change games if the rest of the team is a coherent unit, but that would be pretty textbook "luxury player" which isn't ever how I saw Pogba turning out

van der vaart was definitely also more of a luxury player than most, definitely compared to Sneijder. though I'd say Van der Vaart did still have leadership and a sense of initiative to take things into his own hands that I'm yet to really see with Pogba.

 

[JPRouve]

I think the edit to my comment basically made precisely that distinction actually!



van der vaart was definitely also more of a luxury player than most, definitely compared to Sneijder. though I'd say Van der Vaart did still have leadership and a sense of initiative to take things into his own hands that I'm yet to really see with Pogba.

But that's not really fair because instead of considering the fact that Pogba is actually a very productive player that has been performing for different managers using different approaches. He also has taken things into his own hands on occasion so that criticism is very inaccurate. The problem is that you look at things that he doesn't have and doesn't need to have and judge the player that he is by them which makes little sense because no player has everything whether we are talking about physical, technical or mental abilities, football is about finding a balance with 11 players.

 

[Steerpike]

I thought it would be intersting to look at the stats for Premier League and Champions League games this season, and compare the fortunes of the team when Pogba starts, and when he doesn't. I excluded domestic cup games because of the likelihood of lower league opposition, and much changed teams, and also because I wanted to focus just on our main priorities.

In order to make the comparison as fair as possible, I also categorised the games into 'very difficult' (i.e. where we would be the outsiders), and the remainder (i.e. where we would probably be favourites). The games I categorised as 'very difficult' are home and away against Liverpool, City, Barcelona, Juventus and PSG, and just the away games against Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs (so 13 very difficult games in total, all of which have now been played, out of a total of 45 to date). I also worked on the basis of 3 points for a win for all of the games so that I could come up with a points per game figure, and a projection for a 38 game Premier League season (based on 7 very difficult games, and 31 others).

With Pogba:

39 games played - WDL 20-7-12.
10 very difficult games, WDL 2-2-6 - 8pts, averaging 0.80 per game.
29 other games, WDL 18-5-5 - 59 pts, averaging 2.03 per game.

On that basis, a Premier League season with Pogba starting would yield 69 points (68.53, but rounded to the nearest point).

Without Pogba:

6 games played - WDL 3-1-2
3 very difficult games WDL 1-0-2 - 3pts, averaging 1.00 per game.
3 other games, WDL 2-1-0 - 7pts, averaging 2.33 per game.

On that basis, a Premier League season without Pogba would yield 79 points (79.23, but rounded to the nearest point).

Away from points, and with no detailed breakdown, to goals scored and conceded per game: -

With Pogba - scored 61, conceded 51 (1.56 and 1.31 per game respectively).
Without Pogba - scored 12, conceded 10 (2.00 and 1.67 per game respectively).

Looking at all of the stats, it would be hard to make a case for Pogba being a positive influence on the team's performances, or even on the overall creativity of the team (we've scored more per game without him, despite the fact that the games without him have looked tougher). Maybe we have underestimated his defensive contribution (but that difference might also be explained by the fixtures).

To be fair, I acknowledge that 6 games is a very small sample size for the 'without Pogba' stats (and that I would have been quite happy to have had a larger number to work with).

 

[Ajaxsuarez]

I thought it would be intersting to look at the stats for Premier League and Champions League games this season, and compare the fortunes of the team when Pogba starts, and when he doesn't. I excluded domestic cup games because of the likelihood of lower league opposition, and much changed teams, and also because I wanted to focus just on our main priorities.

In order to make the comparison as fair as possible, I also categorised the games into 'very difficult' (i.e. where we would be the outsiders), and the remainder (i.e. where we would probably be favourites). The games I categorised as 'very difficult' are home and away against Liverpool, City, Barcelona, Juventus and PSG, and just the away games against Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs (so 13 very difficult games in total, all of which have now been played, out of a total of 45 to date). I also worked on the basis of 3 points for a win for all of the games so that I could come up with a points per game figure, and a projection for a 38 game Premier League season (based on 7 very difficult games, and 31 others).

With Pogba:

39 games played - WDL 20-7-12.
10 very difficult games, WDL 2-2-6 - 8pts, averaging 0.80 per game.
29 other games, WDL 18-5-5 - 59 pts, averaging 2.03 per game.

On that basis, a Premier League season with Pogba starting would yield 69 points (68.53, but rounded to the nearest point).

Without Pogba:

6 games played - WDL 3-1-2
3 very difficult games WDL 1-0-2 - 3pts, averaging 1.00 per game.
3 other games, WDL 2-1-0 - 7pts, averaging 2.33 per game.

On that basis, a Premier League season without Pogba would yield 79 points (79.23, but rounded to the nearest point).

Away from points, and with no detailed breakdown, to goals scored and conceded per game: -

With Pogba - scored 61, conceded 51 (1.56 and 1.31 per game respectively).
Without Pogba - scored 12, conceded 10 (2.00 and 1.67 per game respectively).

Looking at all of the stats, it would be hard to make a case for Pogba being a positive influence on the teams performances, or even on the overall creativity of the team (we've scored more per game without him, despite the fact that the games without him have looked tougher). Maybe we have underestimated his defensive contribution (but that difference might also be explained by the fixtures).

To be fair, I acknowledge that 6 games is a very small sample size for the 'without Pogba' stats (and that I would have been quite happy to have had a larger number to work with).

one of those 3 "other games" without him being the easiest match of the season on paper (Fulham at home, 4-1) shows how that small sample size could really skew anything like this (even if one of the others is Arsenal at home as well). why not add last season into this as well?

 

[Jeppers7]

one of those 3 "other games" without him being the easiest match of the season on paper (Fulham at home, 4-1) shows how that small sample size could really anything like this (even if one of the others is Arsenal at home as well). why not add last season into this as well?

I thought it would be intersting to look at the stats for Premier League and Champions League games this season, and compare the fortunes of the team when Pogba starts, and when he doesn't. I excluded domestic cup games because of the likelihood of lower league opposition, and much changed teams, and also because I wanted to focus just on our main priorities.

In order to make the comparison as fair as possible, I also categorised the games into 'very difficult' (i.e. where we would be the outsiders), and the remainder (i.e. where we would probably be favourites). The games I categorised as 'very difficult' are home and away against Liverpool, City, Barcelona, Juventus and PSG, and just the away games against Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs (so 13 very difficult games in total, all of which have now been played, out of a total of 45 to date). I also worked on the basis of 3 points for a win for all of the games so that I could come up with a points per game figure, and a projection for a 38 game Premier League season (based on 7 very difficult games, and 31 others).

With Pogba:

39 games played - WDL 20-7-12.
10 very difficult games, WDL 2-2-6 - 8pts, averaging 0.80 per game.
29 other games, WDL 18-5-5 - 59 pts, averaging 2.03 per game.

On that basis, a Premier League season with Pogba starting would yield 69 points (68.53, but rounded to the nearest point).

Without Pogba:

6 games played - WDL 3-1-2
3 very difficult games WDL 1-0-2 - 3pts, averaging 1.00 per game.
3 other games, WDL 2-1-0 - 7pts, averaging 2.33 per game.

On that basis, a Premier League season without Pogba would yield 79 points (79.23, but rounded to the nearest point).

Away from points, and with no detailed breakdown, to goals scored and conceded per game: -

With Pogba - scored 61, conceded 51 (1.56 and 1.31 per game respectively).
Without Pogba - scored 12, conceded 10 (2.00 and 1.67 per game respectively).

Looking at all of the stats, it would be hard to make a case for Pogba being a positive influence on the team's performances, or even on the overall creativity of the team (we've scored more per game without him, despite the fact that the games without him have looked tougher). Maybe we have underestimated his defensive contribution (but that difference might also be explained by the fixtures).

To be fair, I acknowledge that 6 games is a very small sample size for the 'without Pogba' stats (and that I would have been quite happy to have had a larger number to work with).

This is the only part worth reading really.

 

[Steerpike]

one of those 3 "other games" without him being the easiest match of the season on paper (Fulham at home, 4-1) shows how that small sample size could really anything like this (even if one of the others is Arsenal at home as well). why not add last season into this as well?

I agree regarding the ability of small sample sizes to distort the picture. It would have been good to perhaps have 3 categories, with a 'very easy' set as well, but that would have left just one game in the 'others' set for the 'without Pogba' stats (I considered home to Young Boys to be in the very easy category as well).

Regarding extending the stats to last season: -

1. This thread is about 2018/9 performances.

2. I didn't want to spend that much time on it.

 

[buckooo1978]

interesting tweet

 

[Canagel]

When fit, City have got D. Silva, B. Silva, and KDB for the two creative midfield positions. As talented as he is, he's not walking into the team ahead of any of those 3.

He will. everything in our team is going through him from the attacking/creative. A third of our goal will have his influence on it. despite scored over 100 goals again and being the far superior oiled machine your attacking midfielders doesn't exceed him in creativity. And if they did it's very marginal.
Infact stats showed his chance created from open play is on par with eriksen and silva.

 

[andyox]

He will. everything in our team is going through him from the attacking/creative. A third of our goal will have his influence on it. despite scored over 100 goals again and being the far superior oiled machine your attacking midfielders doesn't exceed him in creativity. And if they did it's very marginal.
Infact stats showed his chance created from open play is on par with eriksen and silva.

But it's not just about attacking and creativity though, otherwise someone like Ozil would be the best player in the world. Obviously Pogba's goals and assists stats (though padded by penalties) are impressive, he's possibly one of the most talented midfielders in the league. But talent and attacking output doesn't equal consistent effectiveness as a central midfielder. It's his overall contribution to the game in an offensive and defensive (particularly positional) sense that Guardiola would be judging, and it's that test that he would be failing time and again. There's just no way to carry a player like Pogba in a system like City's or Liverpool's that is so positionally precise, despite the creativity that he would no doubt provide.

Watch him fail to track Bernardo Silva for the first goal last night. Guardiola would just not be having that, it's not acceptable. And a result, he wouldn't get in City's midfield.

 

[Loublaze]

But it's not just about attacking and creativity though, otherwise someone like Ozil would be the best player in the world. Obviously Pogba's goals and assists stats (though padded by penalties) are impressive, he's possibly one of the most talented midfielders in the league. But talent and attacking output doesn't equal consistent effectiveness as a central midfielder. It's his overall contribution to the game in an offensive and defensive (particularly positional) sense that Guardiola would be judging, and it's that test that he would be failing time and again. There's just no way to carry a player like Pogba in a system like City's or Liverpool's that is so positionally precise, despite the creativity that he would no doubt provide.

Watch him fail to track Bernardo Silva for the first goal last night. Guardiola would just not be having that, it's not acceptable. And a result, he wouldn't get in City's midfield.

Rubbish. He'd walk into any top team. You don't think Pep would work with him to improve what he sees as his weaknesses? Look at the wonders he's done with Sterling.

 

[Canagel]

But it's not just about attacking and creativity though, otherwise someone like Ozil would be the best player in the world. Obviously Pogba's goals and assists stats (though padded by penalties) are impressive, he's possibly one of the most talented midfielders in the league. But talent and attacking output doesn't equal consistent effectiveness as a central midfielder. It's his overall contribution to the game in an offensive and defensive (particularly positional) sense that Guardiola would be judging, and it's that test that he would be failing time and again. There's just no way to carry a player like Pogba in a system like City's or Liverpool's that is so positionally precise, despite the creativity that he would no doubt provide.

Watch him fail to track Bernardo Silva for the first goal last night. Guardiola would just not be having that, it's not acceptable. And a result, he wouldn't get in City's midfield.

Most of yours and liverpool players was hardly known for their running before the coaching of guardiola and klopp. Pogba's distance covered is amongst the highest of our team. His supposed lack of workrate is a myth. His running style makes it appear he jogs but he can take longer strides than most and cover the blades of grass in defending. We're just very disorganized mostly from the tactical point. There's no reasons to in my view to believe he couldn't play for guardiola and klopp team. He will probably have been the undisputed best midfielder of the league.

 

[Adam-Utd]

interesting tweet

Number 1 in distance covered you say? but but but he’s lazy and doesn’t run!

 

[andyox]

Rubbish. He'd walk into any top team. You don't think Pep would work with him to improve what he sees as his weaknesses? Look at the wonders he's done with Sterling.

Most of yours and liverpool players was hardly known for their running before the coaching of guardiola and klopp. Pogba's distance covered is amongst the highest of our team. His supposed lack of workrate is a myth. His running style makes it appear he jogs but he can take longer strides than most and cover the blades of grass in defending. We're just very disorganized mostly from the tactical point. There's no reasons to in my view to believe he couldn't play for guardiola and klopp team. He will probably have been the undisputed best midfielder of the league.

Agreed, Guardiola has significantly improved several City players. But he's also been ruthless with those that haven't bought into what he wants offensively, defensively, and positionally. Look at Mahrez, and to a certain extent Sane.

I didn't mention workrate or distance covered, I mentioned positional sense. Pogba doesn't have it at the moment. That doesn't work in a system like Guardiola's that is so reliant offensively and defensively on positional precision. So the question is, would he be willing to put in the effort to learn it under Guardiola? There's no doubt he has the talent. Guardiola has managed to coach D. Silva, B. Silva, and KDB into slightly different roles than they previously played, so I believe he could do the same with Pogba, if Pogba was willing to learn. I have my doubts.

Beyond that, if we're talking very specifically about a Guardiola team, his preferred style of play and creativity is fast movement, one or two touches, and short, sharp passes. That's obviously not the only way to be creative, but it's significantly different to Pogba's style of play, which is more often multiple touches and pinpoint accurate longer passes. Again, I'm sure he could adapt to that, if he had the willingness to do so. He might be slightly more suited to Klopp's style, which is much more direct in transitions than City's.

 

[Adnan]

 

[FootyGirl88]

 

[VP89]

Did they actually name Lingard?

Also seniority in football is not simply related to age. Weird tweet.

De Ligt can walk into our squad and be one of the more senior members straight away for example.

 

[breakout67]

The dressing room leader of a team that has lost 7 in 9 including shambolic performances against Everton, Wolves, West Ham and Watford. So basically a shite leader.

 

[edgar allan]

Rubbish. He'd walk into any top team. You don't think Pep would work with him to improve what he sees as his weaknesses? Look at the wonders he's done with Sterling.

Jose tried to get him to address his defensive weaknesses.....he wasn't having any of it.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Number 1 in distance covered you say? but but but he’s lazy and doesn’t run!

That stats is wrong. Or at least misleading. In distance covered per game he's behind a good few other players (including all our other CMs). He's only covered the most distance because he's played the most minutes. You can see details in the "Workrate" thread.

Which makes me wonder how many other stats in that tweet are down to him just being on the pitch more than most other players?

 

[Van Aanholt's Express]

If he played for an unfashionable team you'd think "there's a decent player in there somewhere - might be worth a punt".

 

[Adam-Utd]

That stats is wrong. Or at least misleading. In distance covered per game he's behind a good few other players (including all our other CMs). He's only covered the most distance because he's played the most minutes. You can see details in the "Workrate" thread.

Which makes me wonder how many other stats in that tweet are down to him just being on the pitch more than most other players?

My reply was more tongue in cheek than anything, i'd be surprised if he was top of the running stats too. But TBH that isn't important to me, he isn't a player that relies on running around like a nutcase like Lingard or Mctominay.

It just makes me laugh that people call him lazy when he really isn't, he's just an explosive type of player that drains his stamina quickly, so can often look like he's taking a rest where he's gassed. I genuinely think this generation think footballers are like fifa players that should have unlimited stamina and never get tired, it's bonkers.

 

[TMDaines]

Did they actually name Lingard?

Also seniority in football is not simply related to age. Weird tweet.

De Ligt can walk into our squad and be one of the more senior members straight away for example.

Leadership and seniority are not the same thing.

 

[VP89]

Leadership and seniority are not the same thing.

Seniority from a football sense stems from experience. Pogba has seniority over Lingard.

De Ligt would have more seniority than a 19 year old would normally command too.

 

[JPRouve]

That stats is wrong. Or at least misleading. In distance covered per game he's behind a good few other players (including all our other CMs). He's only covered the most distance because he's played the most minutes. You can see details in the "Workrate" thread.

Which makes me wonder how many other stats in that tweet are down to him just being on the pitch more than most other players?

Yeah Pogba is around 10.5Km per games which is clearly not the highest but still good, it's comparable to Yaya Touré. I was reading an old article a few weeks ago about Touré you may find it interesting.

 

[Jeppers7]

That stats is wrong. Or at least misleading. In distance covered per game he's behind a good few other players (including all our other CMs). He's only covered the most distance because he's played the most minutes. You can see details in the "Workrate" thread.

Which makes me wonder how many other stats in that tweet are down to him just being on the pitch more than most other players?

He's played more minutes = he's had a shite season

One might wonder why Ole has dropped everyone but Pogba

 

[OL29]

The dressing room leader of a team that has lost 7 in 9 including shambolic performances against Everton, Wolves, West Ham and Watford. So basically a shite leader.

Not saying he's been great in those matches (he's been underwhelming to say the least) but this rebuttal is as weak as some of the defences we see for Pogba. Take someone like John Terry, leadership was one of his stand out qualities yet he was a central player in some of their most shambolic performances. Vidic was captain during Moyes' time yet jumped ship midseason during our worst season in recent history. Doesn't mean he they terrible leaders, just not miracle workers. That tweet about Sky being desperate to criticise Pogba rings true about a number of our fans too. It's no wonder he supposedly wants to leave, the scrutiny he gets from fans and the media alike, compared to others is ridiculous.

 

[MikeKing]

No, I'm just realistic and not seeing it through hateful eyes.

Have you ever actually played football before? I doubt he could hardly see Pereira through the bodies, let alone play a "simple pass". A simple pass is also not 15 yards away going through 3 city bodies first. Do you think he ignored the "easy pass" and just wanted to try and dribble passed 3 city players? come on...

Things like this happen against a good team in a match, but people over analyse every single touch/move and then call it a "BAD" performance. It's crazy.

Swap Pogba for Gundogan and it would have been the exact same story last night.

The pass to Pereira weren't the easy one, but I can totally see Kroos or Modric make a pass like that from that position. Pogba did miss the easy pass though, it was the quick pass to Lindelof, who when received would have made a one touch pass to Shaw. It would have opened the situation up to switch play. I mean, predictability wise it would most likely go back to De Gea who then hoofs, but still it is the better option than what he chose to do.

 

[Aloysius's Back 3]

I watch him be a sort of an attacking midfielder for us & this leads to showing alot of the gaps in his game - a poor defensive output.

However, I look at him for France and he is made to play as a CDM or a deep lying CM. By not making him go forward - pogba finds himself in the perfect position to provide an attacking output whilst also being deep enough to not lose the defensive aspect of his game.

However this is due to France having more creative output than United. They have Griezmann for example providing some assistance to Giroud etc. Pogba can't be the main creative man and can't be our AM. He needs to play deeper when we get more creative players to play in front of him.

The type of Pogba football he played for Juventus where he had space and freedom to do what he wants was a youthful style to his game; he needs to adapt to the final composed version of himself in my opinion.

 

[Jeppers7]

The pass to Pereira weren't the easy one, but I can totally see Kroos or Modric make a pass like that from that position. Pogba did miss the easy pass though, it was the quick pass to Lindelof, who when received would have made a one touch pass to Shaw. It would have opened the situation up to switch play. I mean, predictability wise it would most likely go back to De Gea who then hoofs, but still it is the better option than what he chose to do.

In our team maybe, but then he gets criticised for doing that all game and not doing anything.

What struck me watching city was the amount of time their players spent stood still with the ball. Because they know they won't have one option 15 yards away through bodies. They always have 3/4 options and just wait for the right one.

That clip highlights the issue within our club currently....those focussed on the Individual will say it's Pogba who's to blame (he can't win in reality)

If you focus on the collective, what becomes clearly apparent is the lack of movement and game plan.

 

[Canagel]

Look at these two clowns

 

[breakout67]

Not saying he's been great in those matches (he's been underwhelming to say the least) but this rebuttal is as weak as some of the defences we see for Pogba. Take someone like John Terry, leadership was one of his stand out qualities yet he was a central player in some of their most shambolic performances. Vidic was captain during Moyes' time yet jumped ship midseason during our worst season in recent history. Doesn't mean he they terrible leaders, just not miracle workers. That tweet about Sky being desperate to criticise Pogba rings true about a number of our fans too. It's no wonder he supposedly wants to leave, the scrutiny he gets from fans and the media alike, compared to others is ridiculous.

Classic, create ridiculous false equivalencies. You know when we were getting dicked by Barca, who was the one getting everyone up after we conceded a goal? Ashley Young (god help us when Ashley Young is the only one with some back bone in the team).

When we play bad, Pogba is the one that gets frustrated and throws his toys out of the pram. That is not a leader. He makes these performances worse, he enables them instead of putting out fires and sorting other people out (for example by trying to take on 3 or 4 players instead of playing a simple pass and move). To compare him to John Terry in these situations is laughable, the response to adversity is vastly different.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Yeah Pogba is around 10.5Km per games which is clearly not the highest but still good, it's comparable to Yaya Touré. I was reading an old article a few weeks ago about Touré you may find it interesting.

That's a good read, thanks. Although, to be fair to Toure, he was 32 years old when that article was written, which is not an excuse that Pogba can rely on for his lack of sprints.

 

[JPRouve]

That's a good read, thanks. Although, to be fair to Toure, he was 32 years old when that article was written, which is not an excuse that Pogba can rely on for his lack of sprints.

Do you have the sprints stats? Because while it is accepted among analysts that distance covered is a meaningless data, the ability to accumulate a certain amount of sprints at a certain pace is linked to success and valued.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Do you have the sprints stats? Because while it is accepted among analysts that distance covered is a meaningless data, the ability to accumulate a certain amount of sprints at a certain pace is linked to success and valued.

Someone posted a Manchester United league table of sprints in the “workrate” thread. Only included top six. Lindelof was 6th. Pogba didn’t feature.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Sprints per 90 mins:

Rashford 26
Lingard 17
Sanchez 16.45
Lukaku 12
Shaw 11.25
Lindelof 6.56

 

[Pogue Mahone]

So < 6 sprints per 90. Not great!

 

[Pogue Mahone]