No doubt, the most productive work environments I've worked in have always had these kind of antics going on.
6
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Brilliant passing range.
It'll be interesting to see how wet line up against tougher opponents and what role does pogba play.
We might need a bit more bite on midfield for pogba and bruno to work effectively in such games
We might need a bit more bite on midfield for pogba and bruno to work effectively in such games
I can imagine if I'm Fred or Mctominay, seeing Pogba as your obstacle to the first team might be too overwhelming.
What can they do to get into the first team?
What can they do to get into the first team?
We could play 3 man midfield of Pogba Matic and Fred/Mctominay.. and play Bruno by sacrificing one of Rashford/Martial/Greenwood. Should give us good control of the game IMO
Why would we do that though? Rashford and Greenwood both work hard outwide and it gives us threat on the counter.
Great players love playing together, it's only a small section of insane "fans" who tend to pit one against the other.
This. Good players appreciate other players talents. Now we are seing the Pogba enjoying football. How often do we look for Pogba to do something special in a game? Not often, but if we are 1-0 down or 1-1 like the Spurs game and time is running out, Pogba can produce special moments.
I am loving how he is playing at the moment.
I think Pogba's been excellent since the restart. Didn't expect him to get up to speed so quickly after such a long spell out with injury, but having others in the squad playing so well has really helped him. It seems he no longer feels the need to carry the team, and as a result he isn't trying to do everything on his own. When he keeps it simple he absolutely bosses the midfield, makes the game look ridiculously easy.
In terms of midfielders, there is literally no one else i'd rather have. Best in the world and if we keep him around we will have a shot at the big trophies.
Largely to control the midfield. Otherwise Matic alone with Pogba and Bruno in the midfield could get overpowered by the likes of Liverpool, City, and in CL etc. I agree about Rashford and Greenwood being hard working though.
I hope we start letting the opposition worry about us rather than the other way around
Target Matic, he's the one that will be rotated the most
His passing between the lines is exceptional.
Pogba is doing just as much defensive work as Matic now he's not having to be the creative force at the same time.
Do you think some people will never be pleased with Pogba unless he turns himself into a peak Yaya Toure?
I don’t think much needs to change at all. Not in terms of personnel anyway. The simple tweak I’d make is to drop Bruno back 15 yards into a double 8 with Pogba, in front of Matic. That’s as much as a sacrifice I think we should be making with the players we have now.
Some people will never be pleased until he turns into peak Yaya Touré+De Bruyne+Keane+Vieira. And this isn't just at United, you have many people in France who have the same weird expectations.
Agreed. There is no need to change personnel, in a way Bruno is a bit like Sneijder while he thrives as an attacking midfielder he is defensively sound, if you want a denser midfield you just have to change the area he is supposed to cover. And I would actually use him as the first alternative to Pogba as the playmaking CM, that's why I like the idea of adding Sancho who is good through the middle and wide, by himself he gives us a lot of flexibility.
Evolve into something else the team needs, be the new matic
There will also be plenty of game time for them throughout the season every top team has their quality in the squad
The French not being satisfied with their top players is a weird thing. It was the same with Titi and now we're already seeing the same with Mbappé.
Henry is different, he is obnoxious and while he has always been highly rated no one likes his personality. Mbappé isn't disliked in France, only Dugarry runs his mouth for no good reason.
He comes across different in English media. I've always thought he was relatively humble, a little bit funny and generally a nice guy.
Didn't Petit also go in on him, a while back saying he was too much like Neymar or something? People were also going in after the Dortmund loss.
Fans and pundits love narratives and Paul Pogba’s has been set in stone for many years. He’ll need a peak Yaya Toure season alongside a peak Paul Scholes playmaking season for the most ardent fans to change their minds.
For what it’s worth — he wasn’t far off ‘peak Yaya Toure’ last season. Yaya’s best was 20 goals and 9 assists. Pogba got 13 goals and 9 assists in a team with a bunch of cloggers and a shite manager who hated his guts for half of it.
He is a lot of thing humble isn't one of them.
Petit has never said a positive thing about anyone. Never listen to something said by Petit or Dugarry, they are not representative, they say things to make headlines.
Against Spurs he won the penalty and had that mazy run into the box and that chipped chance created for Rasford which got scuffed because we were desperate for a goal. Against Brighton and Bournemouth he was further back and just controlled the midfield getting the ball through to the attackers. He is a highly mature professional reacting yo the need on the pitch. Only before Bruno came we needed him to be in 2 places at once and then he got flak for not being able to do that as well. It would piss anyone off.
Now we're seeing the true Pogba, a team player and professional. A lot of us always believed this from actually seeing him and not buying into the media anti hype against him. I was very tentative about losing him but hopefully he now signs the contract and we get in more players on his level.
Agree.
You can tell he has a lot of self confidence, which borderlines on being smug and footballing wise it's hard argue it's not 'deserved'. However, interested to know why/how he comes across as obnoxious in France?
In reality to control the midfield you simply need better players with good coaching. This need to fill the midfield with runners and "hardworkers" is when you feel inferior to your opponents. We don't now have the quality to stop worrying about loading the midfield with runners and just focus on our strength.
A midfield of Pogba, Matic and Bruno should be able to control or go toe to toe with any midfield given they're all good on the ball. You can't choose to sacrifice the threat going forward just to throw in another midfielder to control it when the likes of Pogba, Matic and Bruno should be enough to control it.
It's time to start letting other opponents worry about our team. Time to start going toe to toe with any other top team rather than just setting to counter them as if we don't have ballers in the middle of the park. It'll all be down to coaching.
I'll be taking a closer look at the Chelsea FA cup game. We simply can't play those 25-30% possession football against them anymore, not with our current midfield. We should be looking to play our own game and not sit back like inferior opponents waiting for lucky breaks.
Try to control the midfield by playing the ball and there won't be any need for our players to be chasing shadows and being pinned back for majority of the game.
Yeah I'd also like to know why/how. Could you please elaborate a bit on that? @JPRouve
@Santoryo us playing on the counters against big teams isn’t just due to the midfield options but chiefly because of how slow our CBs are. The solution to that is either play a double pivot or drop deep, but since we were awful at creating chance through open play overloading the middle wasn’t an attractive option.
Sancho + a fast CB should help us truly go toe to toe with any big team out there. Until then, playing on the back foot against them isn’t so much about the quality of our midfielders but a reflection of the strength/weakness of our team as a whole.
Sancho + a fast CB should help us truly go toe to toe with any big team out there. Until then, playing on the back foot against them isn’t so much about the quality of our midfielders but a reflection of the strength/weakness of our team as a whole.
He has a bad temper and can easily lash out on others, prone to insult teammates and during his stint at Monaco he flat out insulted opponents from the sideline or made fun of his own players in front of their teammates. He used to do that as a player too but when you are the best player in the team, no one really says much.
He's been superb since returning and will probably only get better as he gets more games under his belt.
I love the simplicity to his game at the moment, it's so effective and makes the little moments of genius he's capable of really special when he does break them out.
I love the simplicity to his game at the moment, it's so effective and makes the little moments of genius he's capable of really special when he does break them out.
They still are but not as negatively.
It is true and if both were to leave this summer for Spain we would struggle to replace both, particulary the former.
Agreed, Paul definetly deserves more freedom like those first few games under Solskjaer. He was absolutely devastating in that role so if he cant play there in the very least he should be on the left of a 4:3:3. This deeper role he is being made to do, does not get the best out of him and is too restrictive. I can see it being another reason for him to leave, regardless of how the team is performing.
what a WUM.I knew about the throwing of strops/being very demanding during his latter years at Arsenal though. I'm pretty sure Wenger or Fabregas said as much when he left, that whilst he was the absolutely the best player, when he didn't get the right ball etc, his frustration was demoralising for the rest of the team. Along with some good transfers, it explains why post-Henry, they had a very exciting team as the leash was sort of let loose.
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I lived there for a while - 5 years and tbf they are generally not much a fan of football, except some regions in the south. So generally again they don't watch football much. Most of them only watch their national team in the big tournaments, without much football knowledge and often know their players only through the press. And the press, we all know they tend to exaggerate things. That's probably why I think.
@Adam-Utd @Santoryo the reason why Pogba is so effective right now is he is occupying positions mostly near or in opposition half as we are dominating possession. He would be far less effective if stuck in our half against better big 6 six opposition - not a criticism of him, but that's just not his game. He is the best player of our team on talent and should be played where he is most effective and against good opposition he should have the luxury of two sitting midfielders behind him.
Also why change a winning formula Ole has devised of sitting back and counter-attacking against big six opposition? Now we have even better players to execute the plan more effectively.
Also why change a winning formula Ole has devised of sitting back and counter-attacking against big six opposition? Now we have even better players to execute the plan more effectively.
That's not really how it is. The South is the divided part where Rugby is often the main sport, the northern half is all about Football. And people watch Football, it's just not the only sport nationwide.
Pogba is a to player but I think many feel the heavy breathing of his agent on their neck. At the end of the day, people always compare players but it's always about the Unit and smart players understand that. We had the perfect example with the relationship of Scholes and Keane. Keane could maybe have done more offensively but when you have scholes beside you you have to seek compliment that. Bruno is in great form in terms of goals and assists and so Pogba is playing deeper and being more controlled. We can find a happy balance as things progress but our midfield is not an issue. Pogba is allowing Bruno to flourish because he's giving the balance we require in the middle.
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