[Rozay]

And yet it’s Bruno who wins us the game. Damn.

I’m guessing you’re trolling at this stage. Not that Bruno was poor, but scoring a spot kick doesn’t make you the best player, don’t be ridiculous. We could have given the pen to Brandon Williams and there’s a good chance he’d have scored it.

 

[Handré1990]

Was my motm was a disciplined and understated game. The amount of defensive work he got through was crazy. So many times he got Bruno in only for him to mess it up.

Pretty much this, except for MotM, which he wasn’t for me.

 

[Jeppers7]

Average again, honestly for 250k a week could we look at upgrading...?
[/QUOTE

Lol

 

[Fluctuation0161]

He played well today. Looked the best player on the pitch for quite some time.

 

[Alemar]

Did well today, and was very good defensively which is worth a separate mentioning (many headers won, blocked the ball almost on the line in the first half).

 

[Mainoldo]

Did OK today, was tidy enough and kept his positioning and passing simple and on point. Some good defensive work today for a change too.
Comical shot at goal through that would even have made Lukaku wince. @GifLord Can you oblige?
In summary he was OK. But not any more.

(Agenda’s)

 

[sammsky1]

(Agenda’s)

Are you OK hun? Did I prick your sweet little ego?

 

[Dec9003]

He was good today, I don’t really buy that he played this overly deep role that shackled him though. After we got control of the match he spent a good amount of time hanging around the edge of box trying to make things happen.
I’ve seen plenty of people say we should play ‘4-3-3’ but if by that we mean putting him alongside Bruno whilst we had Fred the deepest on his own, I think we’d be out of the competition.
If in future we want to see Pogba more advanced; then we need to get a proper world class holding midfielder in, we simply have nobody at the club who can handle that role on their own at the moment.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

He did fairly well, but Ole is asking too much of him.

He'd ask too much of Xavi in the same role as well.

He's basically a 1 man midfield at the moment.

 

[mancan92]

And yet it’s Bruno who wins us the game. Damn.

Whilst not being anywhere near our best player. Scoring a penalty. What's your point?

 

[VeevaVee]

I’m guessing you’re trolling at this stage. Not that Bruno was poor, but scoring a spot kick doesn’t make you the best player, don’t be ridiculous. We could have given the pen to Brandon Williams and there’s a good chance he’d have scored it.

I mean....we could have given it to Pogba and there's a good chance he wouldn't.

 

[Redlyn]

Him and Fred only 2 players to come out of the first half with any credit. 2nd half he controlled it. My MOTM personally.

 

[Infra-red]

Let me pose a question.

If you were manager and were building a team around Pogba, what position would you play him?

Where should he play?

If I had to build a team around him, I'd play him on the left of a midfield three in a 3-5-2 formation. That's where he played at Juve and showed the best form in his career thus far.

I wouldn't build a team around him though - I don't think he's that kind of player.

It looks like Solskjaer plans to play him deeper, alongside a #6. I don't really see this changing unless Bruno gets injured.

 

[shahzy]

Does anyone else get a little annoyed at how we set up our midfield as opposed to individual players? We are playing quite literally a 4-1-1-1-3. In that the 3 midfielders are not even near each other at times. Fred/Matic go super deep and next to the centre backs. Pogba is actually in central midfield by himself and Bruno is playing Wayne Rooney's old position as CF behind the Striker. It just means that neither of them every have options when they are on the ball, they literally only have 1 option and thats it. Very easy to telegraph where the ball is going next and easier for the opposition to defend.

In spells towards the end of the game when we started dominating possession, Bruno and Pogba were about as equally up the pitch as each other and then you saw the interplay which was FAR more effectual. This is a coaching problem imo. The Coaches need to tell the midfield that they are a unit. They arent individuals anymore. Within that unit each of them have roles to play yes but they are so far removed from that atm and are playing individually.

When we were going through the brilliant spell after restart, the midfield unit was much tighter. Pogba and Bruno were next to each other and interplaying. As time has gone on the distances between the midfield has widened where the gap between Matic (furthest back) and Bruno (furthest forward) has become massive. This leads to us having no midfield presence and being very prone to being counter attacked.

As an extra point, each player in this 'midfield' has dropped off. Matic, Pogba, Bruno. All three of them are playing much worse games individually and i think a big reason of that is due to the lack of cohesiveness in the midfield. Each of them are so far apart from each other doing 3 entirely different jobs, leaving each other without many options when on the ball. It makes them all look worse individually. You can get away with this when the opposition players are far inferior to ours. However when they can slightly match the quality of our midfield then our midfield starts getting overun. I dont really want to see what happens when the opposition midfield players can match or exceed the quality of our midfield players. it wont be pretty. Chasing Shadows i think

However with that all said, in this game Pogba was good. The best of our midfielders. However there are bigger problems at play here and the disparity of quality between him and the Copenhagen midfielders lead to him looking good. I can almost guarentee Him, Bruno, matic will all lose possession a million times if we played a team with equal quality midfielders who also work as a unit

 

[bond19821982]

Ole or carrick or anyone in the current coaching team wouldn't get the best of him. What the Feck was that 3...1..................6 formation when we had the ball?

Poor fecker was all by himself in that midfield. He still had a decent game, mind .

 

[Matriac]

Average again, honestly for 250k a week could we look at upgrading...?

Where's the clown emote.

Very good, for "bang average" must be said

 

[Champagne Football]

He's just an unbelievable player when he's focused and happy. See's passes that no other midfielder anyehere see's. Can still be sloppy at times in dangerous areas, but his ability to catch everyone by surprise as to who he's going to pass to next is a joy to behold.

 

[Redlyn]

He is too deep. I feel like Bruno is occupying some of his spaces he likes to get into.

 

[MadDogg]

Does anyone else get a little annoyed at how we set up our midfield as opposed to individual players? We are playing quite literally a 4-1-1-1-3. In that the 3 midfielders are not even near each other at times. Fred/Matic go super deep and next to the centre backs. Pogba is actually in central midfield by himself and Bruno is playing Wayne Rooney's old position as CF behind the Striker. It just means that neither of them every have options when they are on the ball, they literally only have 1 option and thats it. Very easy to telegraph where the ball is going next and easier for the opposition to defend.

In spells towards the end of the game when we started dominating possession, Bruno and Pogba were about as equally up the pitch as each other and then you saw the interplay which was FAR more effectual. This is a coaching problem imo. The Coaches need to tell the midfield that they are a unit. They arent individuals anymore. Within that unit each of them have roles to play yes but they are so far removed from that atm and are playing individually.

When we were going through the brilliant spell after restart, the midfield unit was much tighter. Pogba and Bruno were next to each other and interplaying. As time has gone on the distances between the midfield has widened where the gap between Matic (furthest back) and Bruno (furthest forward) has become massive. This leads to us having no midfield presence and being very prone to being counter attacked.

As an extra point, each player in this 'midfield' has dropped off. Matic, Pogba, Bruno. All three of them are playing much worse games individually and i think a big reason of that is due to the lack of cohesiveness in the midfield. Each of them are so far apart from each other doing 3 entirely different jobs, leaving each other without many options when on the ball. It makes them all look worse individually. You can get away with this when the opposition players are far inferior to ours. However when they can slightly match the quality of our midfield then our midfield starts getting overun. I dont really want to see what happens when the opposition midfield players can match or exceed the quality of our midfield players. it wont be pretty. Chasing Shadows i think

However with that all said, in this game Pogba was good. The best of our midfielders. However there are bigger problems at play here and the disparity of quality between him and the Copenhagen midfielders lead to him looking good. I can almost guarentee Him, Bruno, matic will all lose possession a million times if we played a team with equal quality midfielders who also work as a unit

Yep. It seemed to start a month or so after the lockdown. That's when I started noticing it anyway.

Bruno isn't dropping back to help out enough and Matic is dropping too far (Fred seemed to do similar today although perhaps not as bad). Our front three are all more goal-scorers than playmakers. Our fullbacks aren't comfortable enough on the ball to add to the buildup (Shaw actually helps out a fair bit normally so it's all gotten much worse since he's been injured). It all ends up with Pogba basically by himself in the middle of the park.

Against Leicester in particular I noticed basically every time we started playing from the back we had this HUGE hole right in the middle of the park where Pogba would be situated and then there were literally five Leicester players surrounding him in every direction. Not directly on him, but all five were significantly closer to him than any other Man Utd player. It means we either have to go long and just hope our three attackers can get to it before a defender, out wide to one of our fullbacks (who aren't anywhere near creative enough to do anything), or give it to Pogba and hope he can do something in the middle of all those players putting him under pressure and cutting off every angle. We desperately need more help in the middle of the park.

 

[eltigreFalcao]

I reckon a player with pogbas abilities and capabilities could and should play definitely better than what he did particulary against kobenavn. But he was ok and a bit more at glances.

Agree that the midfielders seem to be very far apart. Its obvious that ole asks for the sencond pivot to drop down with the cb (even pogba has done that quite ok tbh) and therefore freeng up space for the FBs to push forward (and we all know that our crop in thay position is no well versed in attack), but by this Pogba is gettin in positios where hes the only midfielder actually plauing in the middle of the park. He can, for one thing, play better than he did today in that position, but he definitely can't thrive and provide as much in attack as he is capable of. Definitely needs a holding midfielder that can cover and run, which, as someone said here, we simply do not have. Just in the mould of Fabinho who is a beast breaking up play and seems to defend and distribute very high up the pitch.

Still a solid performance imho and I'm please with him staying in the club for the forseeable future and fulfill his best football now that hes at his peak age wise

 

[Highfather_24]

Bayern often play in the same way with Kimmich dropping in to the defence, and Thiago being the one sitting in front of the defence trying to beat the press. I think for it to work for us players like the Greenwood, Rashford,Bruno and the fullbacks have to offer Pogba more options for passes.

 

[Rozay]

I mean....we could have given it to Pogba and there's a good chance he wouldn't.

That’s an interesting, if not unsurprising way of looking at our pen, but of course, this place is a constant battle by posters to aggressively discredit Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba.

 

[Web of Bissaka]

Doing the dirty and boring work of defensive midfielder well today. As best as he can anyway. Discipline is top notch.

He can no doubt do it, but it's not align with his attacking instinct at all, so he can't keep this up consistently for the whole season.

Still miss Pogba with a smile, attacking freely and unpredictably. It would easily solve the problem today in breaking the good organised low blocks.

 

[#07]

Bayern often play in the same way with Kimmich dropping in to the defence, and Thiago being the one sitting in front of the defence trying to beat the press. I think for it to work for us players like the Greenwood, Rashford,Bruno and the fullbacks have to offer Pogba more options for passes.

The best teams tend to set up with some variant of this shape. What we are lacking is the quality around Pogba to execute it. Pogba is actually the least of our problems in terms of making this work.

When we play like this the full backs advance into midfield to give the midfielder options. This is fine if you are Bayern because you've got Kimmich and Davies, who are both good footballers and good 1v1 going forward. For us the issue is that our fullbacks are, in many respects, just centre backs playing wide. When they take the ball they treat it like a hot potato and 9 times out of 10 go backwards out of fear. Nobody's asking them to be Cafu and Roberto Carlos. However, almost every top team in Europe gets more from their fullbacks than we do.

 

[Andersonson]

He was good today, I don’t really buy that he played this overly deep role that shackled him though. After we got control of the match he spent a good amount of time hanging around the edge of box trying to make things happen.
I’ve seen plenty of people say we should play ‘4-3-3’ but if by that we mean putting him alongside Bruno whilst we had Fred the deepest on his own, I think we’d be out of the competition.
If in future we want to see Pogba more advanced; then we need to get a proper world class holding midfielder in, we simply have nobody at the club who can handle that role on their own at the moment.

If you want full backs charging, two midfielders in 'advanced' positions and three upfront you need a new centreback as well. And a Makelele clone.

Matic and Pogba does a fine job as it is. For a midfielder to roam more forward we need more width, Williams and AWB doesnt provide that width in attack often and good enough. Shaw is good at positioning in attack, but sometimes lacks the end product, but atleast he's an option to play the ball to.

 

[Clermontois]

He should be playing higher than Fernandes, he has a better final ball. If we fix the buildup then we can play a 4-3-3 and get him up the pitch.

That said, he did have a good game from deep today.

You can say that again.

Not sure OIe will ever oblige or that Paul will accept the deeper role for long. Solid game from him again yesterday though, head and shoulders above any of our other players bar Anthony.

 

[Borys]

It was as average a performance as you can expect. Nothing extra ordinary about it. Yes he did marginally better and at last looked bothered to win. That I can give. Nothing what his fan boys trying to make into.

Agreed. He put some effort into the game and his defensive co contribution was noteworthy. He's slow on a turn though, so he has to work on his positioning if he is to play in the middle (what seems to be the plan).

I'm a fan of Pogba. Whether you like him or not, we don't have another central midfielder that does what he does. I'm not saying he's irreplaceable but we would need a replacement if he were to leave. Personally, I hope he stays.
I thought he had a good game tonight but I just wish Ole would play him further up the pitch, or af least be given license to get forward more. I'm amazed at how often I see Matic further forward and joining in the attack whilst Pogba sits back and covers.

Both Pogba and Bruno should be playing on the same height, when one is attacking the second stays in midfield. The problem is, neither Bruno nor Pogba can play defensively so basically we need Makelele clone as somebody mentioned to cover midfield.

I thought he was decent in first half, good in second / ET. It seems to me Ole is trying to teach Pogba how to play in midfield, including defensive duties which is very weak part of his game, considering his build.

What worries me most is his power move seems to be out-muscling the opponent to gain some space to make a pass. It's not very effective technique in top leagues and quite dangerous.

 

[TrustInOle]

Hopefully contract extension tomorrow! Let's gooooo.

 

[FrankDrebin]

Good news.

 

[roonster09]

Hopefully contract extension tomorrow! Let's gooooo.

Hope it's not some adidas bs. Would love if it's contract extension.

 

[Santos J]

Would be nice, think it'll be some brand related stuff though. It was an app last time.

 

[TrustInOle]

Hope it's not some adidas bs. Would love if it's contract extension.

Nah, I feel this is definatley his extension, with all the recent confusion with the Sancho Saga, comes across like the club are trying to get some positive news out there.

I would be highly pissed off if it was something to do with his brand though. Would be the wrong time.

 

[Santos J]

Nah, I feel this is definatley his extension, with all the recent confusion with the Sancho Saga, comes across like the club are trying to get some positive news out there.

I would be highly pissed off if it was something to do with his brand though. Would be the wrong time.

How would it be 'the wrong time' to do something brand related ffs

 

[roonster09]

Nah, I feel this is definatley his extension, with all the recent confusion with the Sancho Saga, comes across like the club are trying to get some positive news out there.

I would be highly pissed off if it was something to do with his brand though. Would be the wrong time.

Pogboots or PogFashion maybe?

 

[The Man Himself]

Definitely it is something brand related.

 

[TrustInOle]

How would it be 'the wrong time' to do something brand related ffs

Wasn't meant to be taken to seriously I very hardly criticize Pogba for anything really, but even a tiny bit of brain power and you can see what every United fan will be hoping for from that tweet, he knows it to. Whilst we are being made out to be the ones to feck up a deal in the media again, I would be very surprised if the PR team haven't decided now is the ripe time to pull out the news.

On the other hand, 'wrong' may not have been the word to use, in his case it would be smart timing.

 

[TrustInOle]

Pogboots or PogFashion maybe?

You cannot bend my hope

 

[Adam-Utd]

He cut his hair to be exactly the same as when we signed him, that's not a coincidence.

I feel it's already done but they're going to announce it tomorrow. Perhaps what the true reason for all the smoke at OT was? Pogba dancing on the pitch

He doesn't usually "announce" he's going to do sponsor related stuff does he?

I know he did with the Pog app thing but that was his own personal thing rather than a sponsor.

 

[TrustInOle]

He cut his hair to be exactly the same as when we signed him, that's not a coincidence.

I feel it's already done but they're going to announce it tomorrow. Perhaps what the true reason for all the smoke at OT was? Pogba dancing on the pitch

He doesn't usually "announce" he's going to do sponsor related stuff does he?

I know he did with the Pog app thing but that was his own personal thing rather than a sponsor.

Hadn't even thought about the smoke at OT. Definatley could be his promo shoot for the new contract.

Do we normally do this though? Can't remember an extension being given a full promo like a transfer? Then again, it is PP

 

[Adam-Utd]

Hadn't even thought about the smoke at OT. Definatley could be his promo shoot for the new contract.

Do we normally do this though? Can't remember an extension being given a full promo like a transfer? Then again, it is PP

Yeah usually it's just a quick announcement and a photo with them signing, but it's a big deal for us to retain him and we know Pogba loves to make some noise.

Probably nothing related at all but would be fun and wind up the haters