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2020-21 Performances


View full 2020-21 profile

6.0 Season Average Rating
Appearances
42
Goals
6
Assists
6
Yellow cards
9
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Only player we have that could have played on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. But yet he’s getting questioned about his Thursday night performance. Only in the Cafe.
 
He does if we keep the ball and has a Fred or Bruno along side him. But in this type of football he doesn’t no.

Toni Kroos doesn’t move an inch and is fine every week. Put Toni Kroos in this team we’ll say his legs are gone.

If you put a Fred/McT alongside him sure. But we will play with Pogba and Bruno infront of him 90% of the time. Where we will have the ball most of the game, and then will get wrecked on the counter.

Even if you count Matic, we would still another another proper 6, preferably a starting quality one. Which was my point. Its not as simple as using McT/Fred in that role = PROFIT. We tried that many times, it doesnt work.
 
The state of this thread is the reason Pogba is thought of as he is. Theee months of being our best player. Forgotten in two minutes when he’s just coming back from injury and has need decent....not great. There’s so many who just can’t wait for him not to have a great game. He’s scrutinised beyond any player, bar Ronaldo in his first three seasons, I’ve ever known.
You keep saying three months of great form or him being our best player, but that simply wasn't the case.

He started the season in shit form (he'd only just got over Covid so I'm not blaming him), got dropped, got injured, then he only stayed fit for two months before he got injured again. Even in those two months he was fairly inconsistent in the second month, having some great games and some poor.

Of course an average/poor two games when he'd just come back from injury isn't the end of the world. Hopefully he'll get into top form for the end of the season.
 
You’re pretty much bang on looking back through the games, Palace, Brighton, Spurs and Arsenal he was truly horrific. Looked well off the pace and was all over the place.

After that he was mostly used from the bench and was generally really good, there was also the Leipzig 5-0 game he started where he was fantastic and PSG away where he came off the bench and changed the game, give us control. Leipzig away when he came off the bench and nearly dragged us through. We really struggled without him in CL and with him fit and in form I’ve no doubt we’d be still in the competition.

The more you look at the games individually, actually the more you realise he’s had a handful of poor games at the start of the season where he clearly was nowhere near fit.

Ole has done a great job of taking Paul out and getting him fit, giving him cameos. Pogba has done a good job of staying professional and putting the work in to get fit during a season, and playing well when he’s been asked to come on.

Ive no doubt that the next time he has a poor game I’ll still hear the same people say he’s never played well for us, or he’s crap 95% of the time. You can literally look back through any season he’s been here and dispel that myth.

Quoting myself because I’m like Nostradamus
 
You keep saying three months of great form or him being our best player, but that simply wasn't the case.

He started the season in shit form (he'd only just got over Covid so I'm not blaming him), got dropped, got injured, then he only stayed fit for two months before he got injured again. Even in those two months he was fairly inconsistent in the second month, having some great games and some poor.

Of course an average/poor two games when he'd just come back from injury isn't the end of the world. Hopefully he'll get into top form for the end of the season.

You’re right actually it was earlier in feb when he got injured, but here is a list of games he played in that period, there were about three games he didn’t do they aren’t included.

Now I’m sure people will argue that he wasn’t our best player in this game or that game, whatever it’s opinions, it doesn’t change the fact that whilst Luke Shaw (usually) might have been better in someone’s opinion, Pogba still played well. The only games he probably didn’t play well in this period were games where the entire team was poor, and he was usually our best player (or one of).

I struggle to think of many poor team performances that include an undeniably brilliant individual performance from any player. But Pogbas individual performances got wrapped up in a team performance so if the teams shit...Pogba was...even when he wasn’t.

This sample size is 16 matches, a poster asked last night about a ratio of good games to poor. Here you go

West Ham. Good. Great equaliser
Leipzig off bench. Almost got us through. Brilliant
City our best player. Only one who could deal with their press
Sheff Utd really good. Great assist and role in second goal
Everton carabao cup. Really good.
Leicester sub really poor.
Wolves. Our best player.
Villa really good. Won penalty for the winner. Big role in first goal.
City carabao cup. Our best player.
Burnley man of the match. Scored winner.
Liverpool our best player.
Fulham good performance. Great goal to win game.
Liverpool fa cup really good performance
Sheff United average but our best player on the night.
Arsenal. Really good.
Everton injured. Was playing really well.

Say what you want but go back over any time period you chose and look through the games individually and in context of team performance. He’s been so much better than he’s given credit for.
 
Considering him and Rashford got kicked left right and centre for the whole of first half, he was quite good.
Tried stuff, but the absolutely pathetic ref failed to do his job, therefore the game reverted to a total shitshow.
 
To be fair if Fred handed in the performance of Mct or Pogba last night his thread would be lit up with fans totally tearing his game apart. People take it way easier on McT and Pogba from what I can see. We couldn’t even get the midfield basics right last night and that’s all we really need most of the time to get the ball up the pitch quick and to actually attempt to win it back when we lose it. It’s not rocket science. Bruno and Pogba don’t compliment each other on the pitch as well as they should which is a pity because they seem to be pally off the pitch. The more I see of them the less I think a new DM behind them is the answer.
 
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To be fair if Fred handed in the performance of Mct or Pogba last night his thread would be lit up with fans totally tearing his game apart. People take it way easier on McT and Pogba from what I can see. We couldn’t even get the midfield basics right last night and that’s all we really need most of the time to get the ball up the pitch quick and to actually attempt to win it back when we lose it. It’s not rocket science. Bruno and Pogba don’t compliment each other on the pitch as well as they should which is a pity because they seem to be pally off the pitch. The more I see of them the less I think a new DM behind them is the answer.
Didn't we play the best football we've had in a long while after the lockdown last season with a midfield trio of Matic Pogba Bruno? Matic was playing out of his mind back then and made the midfield work. I reckon if we had someone perform at that level at CDM again, Bruno + Pogba would excel
 
Didn't we play the best football we've had in a long while after the lockdown last season with a midfield trio of Matic Pogba Bruno? Matic was playing out of his mind back then and made the midfield work. I reckon if we had someone perform at that level at CDM again, Bruno + Pogba would excel

I think it was an ok choice after an unprecedented mid season break. We didn’t really control games and we weren’t overly creative. We were always vulnerable on the counter. It also wasn’t enough to win the EL despite our embarrassment of riches. Matic has looked done ever since that Brighton assist. We lose when he plays. If Bruno and Pogba had any major chemistry it should be showing it against the likes of Granada let alone against the big teams. They look like they get in each other’s way in more games than they compliment each other in. Just a lot of running around and pointing. I just don’t see it anymore with them as a pair. They both want the ball in the same areas to really thrive. I think they kind of cancel each other out a bit even. I’m up for trying the DM behind but I’ll go out on a limb and say I don’t think there’ll be any major upturn in our play. I want it work but I don’t think it will.
 
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Didn't we play the best football we've had in a long while after the lockdown last season with a midfield trio of Matic Pogba Bruno? Matic was playing out of his mind back then and made the midfield work. I reckon if we had someone perform at that level at CDM again, Bruno + Pogba would excel
Not really. It was only a couple of games against struggling teams (Sheffield United in poor form after lockdown and a couple of relegation battlers) where we really played well. As the season wore on our performances became quite average but we were doing enough to win most of the time, much the same as how we've looked most of this season. Our best midfield performance in the last 5-6 weeks of the season was against Sevilla where Fred played instead of Matic.
 
I think it was an ok choice after an unprecedented mid season break. We didn’t really control games and we weren’t overly creative. We were always vulnerable on the counter. It also wasn’t enough to win the EL despite our embarrassment of riches. Matic has looked done ever since that Brighton assist. We lose when he plays. If Bruno and Pogba had any major chemistry it should be showing it against the likes of Granada let alone against the big teams. They look like they get in each other’s way in more games than they compliment each other in. Just a lot of running around and pointing. I just don’t see it anymore with them as a pair. They both want the ball in the same areas to really thrive. I think they kind of cancel each other out a bit even. I’m up for trying the DM behind but I’ll go out on a limb and say I don’t think there’ll be any major upturn in our play. I want it work but I don’t think it will.
I actually think Bruno and Pogba have good chemistry. Its clearly visible that Bruno feels less responsibility to always be the one trying to play intelligent passes when Pogba plays. I see Bruno occasionally ignore an obvious pass to James/Fred/Martial when we are in a losing position, it looks to me that this is because he doesn't trust them. I never notice this with Pogba, if anything he actively looks for Pogba as his second option if he can't find a forward pass into someone breaking the lines.
 
Tottenham 1:3 Man Utd
I really hope these last few months convinces him to stay. He's irreplaceable. Easily MOTM.
 
Brilliant second half. Our control of the game grew as he became more influential. Probably should’ve scored, otherwise an excellent game.
 
Everything is forgiven. Give him his money and improved contract. That's all he's asking for.
 
There are people who will still doubt his ability, he is crucial to us playing well and creating chances - he is at the heart of everything.
 
Absolute masterclass from him, probably as good as he’s played for us.
 
I'm trying not get baited into another false dawn, but damn, when he is on, he is unplayable.
 
World class.
When he plays like this he’s the best midfielder in the PL.
 
Absolute class. They struggled to get the ball from him under pressure. A man vs boys.

He has grown massively on me again this season. I want him to stay now.
 
No idea how Neville didn’t give him man of the match. He was outstanding. We don’t win that without him.
 
Unplayable for pockets of the 2nd half, and, if you're watching astutely, you can see that opposing players don't know whether to try get tight or stand off him, in the end, they have to let him do what he's going to, whether that be effective or not. All comes down to whatever the outcome, it's literally in Pogba's hands(feet). A very interesting thing to watch, something many of the top players have.

People clamouring for him to be gone better take stock of how hard what he does is to replace, and, how much it would cost to do so.
 
The usual bunch won't be posting in here any time soon. I won't tag them as anyone who reads this thread frequently know who they are.

He was immense today. Toying with Spurs at the end.
 
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