That's crap. He was the worst performer in the first half. Constantly dwelling on the ball in a high pressure game where we needed to move the ball quickly from midfield. He was constantly taking extra touches which simply attracted pressure to us. His lax work rate defensively and lack of general aggression is the reason we were forced to ball in our half for the majority of the first half. Our attackers could not get in the game.
You could make the argument that the VDB-Pogba combination did not work out. VDB as a no 10 is very dependent on service and moves off the ball to find danger zones. He's not as proactive as bruno, who came deeper to support the midfield. What the game displayed was that Pogba isn't really a playmaker himself, but if given the freedom to attack the space, due to having another playmaker in the side, he can be really effective. Unfortunately, this means Pogba does not fit well with VDB who also depends on a playmaker when at no.10.