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Paul Pogba France flag

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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Stacks said:
Pogba also had spells playing in the free role or as a 10 under Jose and Ole. Fact is he has both performed and underperformed in every position he has been asked to play, hence the puzzle still hasn't been solved and rival fans are still making jokes about signing players to finally unlock Pogba
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It doesn't really matter what position we've played him in, he's always had to be our main playmaker as we haven't had another midfielder capable of actually doing it. Despite that, when we've put the best three man midfields out it's still generally worked.

In the past the best combination on paper was Pogba-Matic-Herrera. The only two times we ever saw that combination get a proper run of games was towards the end of 17/18 (although Fellaini was also in there sometimes instead of Matic or Herrera) and after Ole came in. Both some of our best periods. In fact I just quickly went through the stats. In the two years that we had all three of them in the team, they played just 15 league games together. 12 wins, 2 draws and just the one loss. What's more, the loss and one draw came in the first two games they ever played together, which means in the next 13 games we had 12 wins and a draw. Raises the question why the hell didn't we see it more? It's literally up there with the form that City and Liverpool have showed over the last few years.

In theory it should then have become Pogba-Matic-Fred. A combination we saw play 6 times in 18/19 for 3 wins and 3 losses, but this was while Fred was struggling to get used to the English game. He came back a completely different player the following season but we've never seen that combination step onto the field at the same time again since. We've seen Bruno-Matic-Fred four times though, for 3 wins and a draw.

Strange to think that over the course of 3 seasons, we've only played the combination that most fans thought was our strongest 19 times. One sixth of the time. And in those 19 games we've literally shown title winning form. Makes you wonder why we didn't see it a hell of a lot more often and why we didn't build our team for that?
 
Stacks said:
I thought the new trend was that Kante is rubbish now? :smirk:
Rabiot would probably not look very good if he played here
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He’s probably past his peak but he would get into this current United team in his slippers.

Rabiot is underrated, not brilliant but solid and technically good on the ball. The three of them in midfield for France is a good mix imo.
 
The biggest issue we have as a side going forward, and probably why Pogba always looks better for France is we have a lack of players making good runs.

Look at that run Digne made, if Pogba picks the ball up in a similar position for us neither AWB nor Shaw would make that.

The movement in our side is awful, and it’s down to coaching. If Henderson at Liverpool picks the ball up in midfield, before he even hits it he knows the areas in the pitch he’ll have runners in already.

Our players in general all want ball to feet.
 
Bwuk said:
The biggest issue we have as a side going forward, and probably why Pogba always looks better for France is we have a lack of players making good runs.

Look at that run Digne made, if Pogba picks the ball up in a similar position for us neither AWB nor Shaw would make that.

The movement in our side is awful, and it’s down to coaching. If Henderson at Liverpool picks the ball up in midfield, before he even hits it he knows the areas in the pitch he’ll have runners in already.

Our players in general all want ball to feet.
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Pretty much. His confidence is very low in our side, which then he looks like a pub player at times and makes the simplest things look difficult after trying to do all on his own. You can't judge Pogba fairly under Ole and Jose, zero coaching.
 
izec said:
Pretty much. His confidence is very low in our side, which then he looks like a pub player at times and makes the simplest things look difficult after trying to do all on his own. You can't judge Pogba fairly under Ole and Jose, zero coaching.
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On top of that, he looks far better physically that what he showed 3 weeks ago.
 
MadDogg said:
It annoys me how many people say things like "we've tried everything", "Pogba needs an entire team built around him" or that "people keep changing what he needs", etc.

Even before we officially bought him a significant amount of people said that to make the strongest possible team (not just 'to get the best out of Pogba') we should be looking to play him as the most attacking of a three man midfield, with a proper playmaker behind him who would generally control the team and tempo. We've never done that. Even on the few times he's played with two other more defensive players, he's always had to be our main playmaker as nobody else can do it. Matic is ok and the times he's had good spells have often been when we've looked our best, but he's been very inconsistent (much more so than Pogba in fact). Pogba is like Gerrard was - capable of being the main playmaker but he's too inconsistent to do it properly, so will be at his best when somebody else does that role and unleashes Pogba/Gerrard into a more impact role.

There's two basic ways that we 'should' have tried. Either a deep-lying playmaking (like Carrick) with a hardworking box-to-box, or more of a pure defensive midfielder with a playmaker (like Modric) next to them. Play Pogba next to either of those combinations and I'm confident we'd have seen a far better player - still coming deep and using his fantastic long passing ability, but with the freedom to push forward more and having the cover for his weak defensive ability. Of course now that we've signed Bruno it's difficult to see how it ultimately works as he doesn't fit in either of those systems. Indeed Bruno will probably be like Pogba and will be at his best if he had one of those combinations behind him as well. Not because of Bruno's limitations, but simply because they are properly functioning midfields. We may have to make the choice and replace one of them (it will be Pogba) with someone more suited to that position.

That has been the most common "what we should do" since we signed him, and we've never done it.
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Stop using logic and sense, it's too obvious.

Pogba deserves a lot of criticism for not being able to lift his own individual performances but we haven't come close to building a platform from good coaching for him or most of our players to really shine consistently.

I've said it repeatedly, it's frankly a disgrace we've under utilsed his skillset and set the team up where his role to perform well is to basically be a glorified ball recycler and midfield enforcer.
 
He is actually a super sub. What he has in him is to do something remarkable and change the game that way however if you play him for 90 minutes he just has too many flaws.
Remember that game against Tottenham when he came on and got the penalty, made that great pass to Rashford? Yup.
 
MattofManchester said:
Has beaten the press a few times for France now.

Pity he can't do that for us, it seems.
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It's the quality around him, and his opposition. France NT starting line up is full of top level players while so very few many teams can match them. Pogba is not a weakness that the opposition can simply focus on targeting with other French players can do serious damage when unmarked.

With us, he is supposed to carry us, and we have teams that can match us in quality, even make us an underdog.

Feel like the other poster is right about Pogba can add the edge in an already strong team, but not the foundation type of player for the team to built on, especially as an underdog.
 


The 1 year option activated.

He went on and talked about Madrid so we as usual paniced and immediately activated the option.
 
What's the benefit of activating the clause at the earliest moment? The club has been showing its commitment to Pogba for years, but has rarely been rewarded with really good performances.. Maybe you could have held the Real Madrid carrot in-front of his face for a little to get at least one very good season out of him?
 
Bazi said:
What's the benefit of activating the clause at the earliest moment? The club has been showing its commitment to Pogba for years, but has rarely been rewarded with really good performances.. Maybe you could have held the Real Madrid carrot in-front of his face for a little to get at least one very good season out of him?
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He will be sold so it's good he has one year left.

There is no need to make profit on this guy. 50 million will be enough.

Selling Pogba at 80 million plus would be an injustice to the buyer. He hasn't justified that kind of fees. We should be happy to take a hit on him and just move him on.
 
I mean there was no planet in which we weren't activating it, right?
 
Ubik said:
I mean there was no planet in which we weren't activating it, right?
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Nah it was always happening.

Think it's a sign he may not be getting another one though. I personally hope he doesn't. He hasn't earned a new 3 to 4 years contract and no doubt the inevitable payrise which would come with it.

Sell him in the summer to the highest bidder and get rid of him. We wont even miss him that much. What does he even do for us that's so great?
 
Bazi said:
What's the benefit of activating the clause at the earliest moment? The club has been showing its commitment to Pogba for years, but has rarely been rewarded with really good performances.. Maybe you could have held the Real Madrid carrot in-front of his face for a little to get at least one very good season out of him?
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Without doing this Pogba would be free to leave as a free agent next summer. Clearly Man Utd intends to earn some money from his eventual departure, therefore it makes sense to ensure he can't just leave next summer. The club was always going to do this, whether now, next month or next year, Pogba was never going to be allowed to leave for nothing next year.
 
kouroux said:
This is actually good if the club is serious about selling him
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Think next summer will be when he finally goes. We've got Donny in now and the very exciting Mejbri coming through. We will be fine without him.
 
Start countdown to the day this virus leaves our club. Will be a day of joy and celebration.
 
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Bazi said:
What's the benefit of activating the clause at the earliest moment? The club has been showing its commitment to Pogba for years, but has rarely been rewarded with really good performances.. Maybe you could have held the Real Madrid carrot in-front of his face for a little to get at least one very good season out of him?
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His contract now runs till 2022 which makes selling him in summer 2021 just about right. Of course there has to be enough interest in him but it didn't make sense for his contact to run out soon from our perspective.
 
He is a good player but he is nothing special. He plays well when his team have good mojo but man utd need players who can create good mojo. Luxury ego driven player who is pointless for Utd. Hope Ole learns how to spell another name because the team-sheet needs updating.
 
Stretender said:
He will be sold so it's good he has one year left.

There is no need to make profit on this guy. 50 million will be enough.

Selling Pogba at 80 million plus would be an injustice to the buyer. He hasn't justified that kind of fees. We should be happy to take a hit on him and just move him on.
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In a world where we want 8m for Romero you can be sure we will want 100m for Pogba
 
I hope we'll never see him being forced into the team again just because Pogba+Bruno looks good on paper.
 
el3mel said:
Activating it immediately after he talked about Madrid is pretty weird though.
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It's United showing who is in control of his future. Whilst also saying, come and get him because we arent offering him a new deal.
 
I think he'll be gone in the summer, we shouldn't be giving him a new contract and we should still be able to recoup around 40-50m for him.
 
DickDastardly said:
Too bad.

He'll just keep stinking this place for more years.
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It's been such a waste of time, for him and us. The circus surrounding him and his agent has been more memorable than his performances.

When we look back at the really great memories of this guy's time here they will be in very short supply unless he goes onto have a great season this year. We're looking at a slightly jammy goal in a Europa League final where Herrera and Fellaini played better games, a memorable performance against City where he lead the fight back (best memory of him by far) and a a 2-3 month spell when Ole came in and he finally started to look like the player we wanted him to be and which got him in the PFA team of the season. It didn't last long.

Five years and that's really it isn't it?! :(
 
Bazi said:
What's the benefit of activating the clause at the earliest moment? The club has been showing its commitment to Pogba for years, but has rarely been rewarded with really good performances.. Maybe you could have held the Real Madrid carrot in-front of his face for a little to get at least one very good season out of him?
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He was about 10 weeks from being able to negotiate a deal with a club for the 2021/22 season. It should have been activated a while ago to provide certainty, but the fact that it hasn’t been suggests the parties aren’t close to agreeing a new contract.
 
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