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2021-22 Performances


View full 2021-22 profile

5.2 Season Average Rating
Appearances
27
Goals
1
Assists
9
Yellow cards
9
Red cards
1
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How the feck did he suddenly look like he could do his share of defending in that deeper midfield role? Was absolutely brilliant yesterday and has been since the start of the season. Added more assists. Let's hope he continues this run of consistency.
He knows he’s surrounded by quality now. He’s motivated. All the raving was quite rightly about ronaldo yesterday but in some respects this was one of my favourite Pogba displays. He orchestrated a lot of our good play and this is exactly what we should be seeing off him.

I’ve always been very hard on him but in this team, playing this way I’d love him to stay and sign a new deal.
 
How the feck did he suddenly look like he could do his share of defending in that deeper midfield role? Was absolutely brilliant yesterday and has been since the start of the season. Added more assists. Let's hope he continues this run of consistency.
He can, always could. It’s massively overplayed here (that he can’t play in a midfield two) and I’ve been saying it for years.

He’s not Kante levels of defending, it’s not his strongest asset, it’s a simple case of partnering him with a player that helps compensate for that and allows him to express himself going forward.
 
He’s a better all around passer than Scholes. Obviously not on Schole’s level in terms of dictation and controlling a game (only a few in history are) but pure passing ability he’s right there with any midfielder you want to name. Both feet, pings, chips, weight of pass, technique, vision, flair he has it all. I’m dead serious.

I think I know what your trying to say. He’s like a Veron. But pure passing ability. I wouldn’t say he’s Scholes level.
 
He's been absolutely class this season and I really hope he chooses to stick around now that we have a real top team around him.
 
7 assists in 4 games.

He’s a joke. Think the record is 20 in a season from Henry/KdB. If he stays fit he should be aiming for that.
 
There seems to be a change in him after Ronaldo arrival.

The pressure seems to be off him, with all the attention on Ronaldo, thus allowing him to focus on what he needs to do.

In the past it seemed that he is the player who is suppose to carry the team. With that off his shoulders, he looks happier and even celebrating so hard on his teammates goals. Never seen that before but a promising year to come from him.
More lies
 
I wouldn't class the two assists as real assists but his overall passing was very good.

He's nailed that first time ball over the top. Really effective.

But don't do it Ole, don't fall back into playing him in a midfield two. It's ok against Willock and Longstaff but get him further up against better opposition.
 
There seems to be a change in him after Ronaldo arrival.

The pressure seems to be off him, with all the attention on Ronaldo, thus allowing him to focus on what he needs to do.

In the past it seemed that he is the player who is suppose to carry the team. With that off his shoulders, he looks happier and even celebrating so hard on his teammates goals. Never seen that before but a promising year to come from him.
He’s been our best player so far this season you clearly haven’t seen the other games we’ve played
 
He’s been our best player so far this season you clearly haven’t seen the other games we’ve played

What? Change in him doesn’t mean from bad to good. I’m just stating he seems different in the way he played against Newcastle. I’m not even on the anti pogba brigade since his arrival. You guys are so sensitive to every comment made against him till you can’t infer from the comments. Calm down
 
I wouldn't class the two assists as real assists but his overall passing was very good.

He's nailed that first time ball over the top. Really effective.

But don't do it Ole, don't fall back into playing him in a midfield two. It's ok against Willock and Longstaff but get him further up against better opposition.

If you don't class the second assist as a REAL assist then that is madness.

We have too many good attacking options to play him further up and he is our best Midfielder. It's best for the team where he is even if it's not best for him.

Other than against Liverpool City Chelsea he should be in the two as or else we are sacrificing an attacker to willingly play a limited Midfield.
 
If you don't class the second assist as a REAL assist then that is madness.

We have too many good attacking options to play him further up and he is our best Midfielder. It's best for the team where he is even if it's not best for him.

Other than against Liverpool City Chelsea he should be in the two as or else we are sacrificing an attacker to willingly play a limited Midfield.

It was a lovely bit of play but he's passing to Martial there not Lingard. The dummy from Martial was the assists really.

Would you have him in a midfield two against the better Champs League teams?
 
Love Pogs but do not like him in our system. Much more effective on the left and his most effective performances have been there imo. The problem is without a DoF, we have not bought players to fit a system. In essence, we now have Martial, Pogs and Rashford on the left. We have even moved Sancho on the left to accommodate Greenwood.
Pogs in the centre puts whoever he plays next to in a heap of problems and leaves them a bit exposed. He's been caught on the ball quite a few times and doesn't react to danger like someone in that position should. It's like in the Euro's, seen the best of him one end, then the worst of him the other. He got caught on the ball which lead to conceding the goal.

Gonna be interesting to see what Ole does when Fred and Scott are back?
 
You really haven't been reading the caf this past year or so. Some were convinced his covid was a bad excuse for being unfit and that he was for sure leaving in January. All kinda nonsense based on feck all was spouted about him.
Those Utd "fans" have disappeared these days
Is he the only one? If redcafe is the benchmark lots of shit has been written about other players too.

And I think that constant fight between 2 sets of fans who disappear or not is kind of boring and childish.
 
He’s getting sent off at some point this season but at least it will be from him trying to make up for a sloppy touch or losing the ball. Better than the shrug of the shoulders that I’d come to expect last year.
 
Love Pogs but do not like him in our system. Much more effective on the left and his most effective performances have been there imo. The problem is without a DoF, we have not bought players to fit a system. In essence, we now have Martial, Pogs and Rashford on the left. We have even moved Sancho on the left to accommodate Greenwood.
Pogs in the centre puts whoever he plays next to in a heap of problems and leaves them a bit exposed. He's been caught on the ball quite a few times and doesn't react to danger like someone in that position should. It's like in the Euro's, seen the best of him one end, then the worst of him the other. He got caught on the ball which lead to conceding the goal.

Gonna be interesting to see what Ole does when Fred and Scott are back?
We have not moved Sancho to the left to accomodate anybody. Rashford is injured and Martial is just not that threatening as a LW, especially to start a game. On top of that, Sancho has been MUCH more productive on the left wing, than on the right in his Dortmund days.
 
I personally did think we should've sold him in summer, not due to his quality but moreso I felt we could get 50 odd million for him which could be put towards a high quality midfielder who fit our system better. I probably should've had a bit more trust in Solskjaer easily accomodating Pogba and Pogba himself delivering in any position he's played in so far this summer and losing him on a free again would really sting. He's just an exceptional and gifted footballer, one of a kind.

I've been thinking this quietly recently but I reckon if Solskjaer had joined the same time Pogba did then Pogba would be as well-regarded with our fanbase as someone like de Gea. Mourinho's comments have shaped a lot of peoples' views on Pogba and his time here but in my mind, he's been quite comfortably either the best or second best player in the team every season since he joined. I notice when he has a poor game because it's so much rarer than people like to say it is.

I do hope this season convinces him to stay, really, we've put together an incredible team and there's arguably only a few teams with more quality than us. I think he'd be daft to want out after we've finally got a team capable of winning things, which is apparently what he's wanted for years.
 
I'd say difference between his and Scholes' passing is around 5-10% accuracy which tells you all you need to know about comparing them. They are two completely different midfielders. Against weaker opposition Pogba's passing is more creative, but he could never replicate that whenever he was pressed(and that's against pretty much every good opposition) unlike Scholes whose passing accuracy was hardly ever bad even when he had a bad game in general. Whenever Pogba is pressed, he makes so many bad passes Scholes would never make even in his worst form.

Ball retention has literally never been the key factor in determining the best passer. Go back through the decades and look at who fans and pundits talked about as the best passer, invariably they’ll be creative passers who take risks to open up the game.

I wouldn't class the two assists as real assists but his overall passing was very good.

He's nailed that first time ball over the top. Really effective.

But don't do it Ole, don't fall back into playing him in a midfield two. It's ok against Willock and Longstaff but get him further up against better opposition.

The first one was a nothing assist but those kinds of ones are balanced out by the killer passes that the striker doesn’t bury. The second one was a moment of creativity from him that opened up the game, not sure how that’s not a real assist?!

He picked it up with three players pressing him and 9 players behind the ball, and he’s one of the only players in our team that can work those situations to find a player in the box. It needed Martial’s dummy and Lingard’s touch for the goal, but most goals need multiple involvements. Just like Shaw’s assist needed Pogba to find him in space with the first time pass, which followed on from quick passing all round.
 
Thought he was outstanding. He was so physical and robust yesterday. Haven’t seen him engaging in duels like that ever for us, I think.
 
It was a lovely bit of play but he's passing to Martial there not Lingard. The dummy from Martial was the assists really.

Would you have him in a midfield two against the better Champs League teams?

Some of them for sure. It depends really. Fred is playing awful right now and isn't helping our Midfield be defensively sound at all. He's been a headless chicken so far.

We have to see how things play out. I reckon McTominay and Pogba is our best partnership most likely.

Even look back to last season against the top 6. We struggled terribly. Barley won a game, and couldn't score or create. McFred played in nearly all of them

The one they didn't play together was the FA Cup versus Liverpool. It was Pogba back in midfield and we played better in that game than nearly all the others where we played McFred.

I felt McFred as a pair where very much found out last season against the top teams.

So we have to see how it goes really. I think if we just default to playing McFred against every big team under the assumption that it is better we might get caught out like last season. If it doesn't work again it can't be stuck with on the basis that it worked two years ago.

I think people sometimes underestimate how much creativity and control we lose playing McTominay and Fred together especially against the better teams.
 
There's something that confuses me about him that I'm really curious about.
He's 6'3" and a broad, strong looking dude. Yet he's so easily shrugged off when he goes shoulder to shoulder with even the smallest of players.
I'm interested to know why he's not able to use his strength more in those situations.
 
If you don't class the second assist as a REAL assist then that is madness.

We have too many good attacking options to play him further up and he is our best Midfielder. It's best for the team where he is even if it's not best for him.

Other than against Liverpool City Chelsea he should be in the two as or else we are sacrificing an attacker to willingly play a limited Midfield.
I agree with the bolded part, we will keep playing him in midfield because we're stocked in attack. It doesn't benefit him nor the team, as he's an attacking midfielder not an all round CM, but against teams that sit back it's the right way as he has a lot of freedom to attack anyway. It didn't work against Wolves who were good at pressing and Pogba was lost in midfield. We have to keep that in mind for next games, but maybe with Ronaldo and Varane more teams will sit back like Newcastle.

I also don't see a problem with sacrificing an attacker to get more control in Central areas, we should've done that against Wolverhampton but that doesn't seem to be the idea of our coaching staff and manager so unfortunately I expect him to play in midfield two quite a lot.

Pogba is in great form and I'd prefer to give him Bruno role (AM), and have whoever we can field in midfield.
 
There's something that confuses me about him that I'm really curious about.
He's 6'3" and a broad, strong looking dude. Yet he's so easily shrugged off when he goes shoulder to shoulder with even the smallest of players.
I'm interested to know why he's not able to use his strength more in those situations.

His balance is just not very good, he stumbles around a lot even on his mazy dribbles. I reckon it has something to do with his gangly legs. Just not the ideal centre of balance or whatever the phrase is? But then I don’t know anything about physique or balance or any of that tbh. Might be something to do with his core…but presumably there’s some fitness folks in here with a real answer?
 
When you look at our attack now there are so many players defenders have to track, the space he's getting and the opportunities to create are huge.

Before, Martial wasn't a big worry so opponents could focus on the source of the pass in Pogba and Bruno. Now Ronaldo is the bigger threat so Pogba and Bruno will get so much more time. You just can't mark all of them at the same time.
 
His balance is just not very good, he stumbles around a lot even on his mazy dribbles. I reckon it has something to do with his gangly legs. Just not the ideal centre of balance or whatever the phrase is? But then I don’t know anything about physique or balance or any of that tbh. Might be something to do with his core…but presumably there’s some fitness folks in here with a real answer?

Agree with this. He's impossible to knock off the ball when he gets his feet set, but when he gets off balance he's so tall and gangly he can't steady himself. Sometimes little short arses get the better of you shoulder to shoulder because of their lower centre of gravity.
 
Really pleased with how much he put into the defensive side of his game. A few have touched on it but his awkward build does make it hard for him sometimes. In particular in those defensive situations but I felt he did well in general against ASM who is as difficult to play against on the counter as any player in this league. He was left exposed a lot but broke up play a few times legally and illegally. The effort is all there now, it’s now just a case of getting him a bit more schooled.
 
Our best possible midfield should be McTominay-Fred-Pogba.
Sadly Bruno can't be dropped.
 
Pogba in a midfield two isn't the problem. The problem is that his partner here was Matic, who was basically doing the exact same thing as Pogba, just worse at everything.

Matic's greatest asset is his passing, particularly through the lines. Pogba is better at it.
Matic's greatest liability is, sadly, everything else.
Offensively, he dithers on the ball - like Pogba but worse.
Defensively, despite his size he's useless in the air defending - like Pogba but worse.
Mobility wise, he simply cannot turn and chase players - like Pogba but worse.

Against teams like Newcastle Pogba can and should play in a midfield two. But we need to find an actual midfielder to do it with him. This isn't some great apologist thread, but who has Pogba had at United? Fred - never worked in a two. Herrera - never worked in a two. Matic - past it 3 months after he signed. McT - a converted striker.

It would be like questioning why a CB doesn't look assured when he never gets paired with another trained CB, rather a slew of out-of-position midfielders.

If we want the option of playing a midfield two, we have to buy a midfielder who can do it. It's really not hard to understand. Pogba is good enough.
 
I’m not sure about that. Scholes played in a team who constantly attacked down the flanks. Wingers with chalk on their boots and overlapping fullbacks. So it’s not a great surprise that he didn’t get many assists. He was a wonderfully creative passer though. Which you saw more towards the end of his career. In his peak he was happy to keep things more simple, passing it out wide and legging it forwards to try get on the end of something in the box.

Yeah I love Scholes and absolutely he wasn’t just a safe or simple passer, he had lovely vision. But when he was alongside Veron you could see the difference in range and style of passes, even towards the end of their careers I would say Giggs was a more creative and inventive passer than Scholes.

Scholes could ping it better than anyone I’ve seen, he didn’t have a left foot yet he could create the space for those diagonals no matter where he was and land them far more consistently than Pogba could. Much better pace too. Pogba gets a lot of praise for that now but Scholes was in a different league, too often they’re a bit casual, floaty and slow things down. But the incisive and inventive passes, Pogba’s top tier and I wouldn’t have said Scholes was personally.
 
I agree with the bolded part, we will keep playing him in midfield because we're stocked in attack. It doesn't benefit him nor the team, as he's an attacking midfielder not an all round CM, but against teams that sit back it's the right way as he has a lot of freedom to attack anyway. It didn't work against Wolves who were good at pressing and Pogba was lost in midfield. We have to keep that in mind for next games, but maybe with Ronaldo and Varane more teams will sit back like Newcastle.

I also don't see a problem with sacrificing an attacker to get more control in Central areas, we should've done that against Wolverhampton but that doesn't seem to be the idea of our coaching staff and manager so unfortunately I expect him to play in midfield two quite a lot.

Pogba is in great form and I'd prefer to give him Bruno role (AM), and have whoever we can field in midfield.

Worked against wolves in the second half. Remember Fred was the worst of the two and he is the so called Midfielder.

He was also terrible versus Southampton too
 
Our best possible midfield should be McTominay-Fred-Pogba.
Sadly Bruno can't be dropped.

I guess that was the original question when Bruno came, where does that leave Pogs? Well even when fit, was on the bench at times as Ole played McFred. What's interesting is so far we haven't seen them but that's because Scott has been injured.
 
Ball retention has literally never been the key factor in determining the best passer. Go back through the decades and look at who fans and pundits talked about as the best passer, invariably they’ll be creative passers who take risks to open up the game.



The first one was a nothing assist but those kinds of ones are balanced out by the killer passes that the striker doesn’t bury. The second one was a moment of creativity from him that opened up the game, not sure how that’s not a real assist?!

He picked it up with three players pressing him and 9 players behind the ball, and he’s one of the only players in our team that can work those situations to find a player in the box. It needed Martial’s dummy and Lingard’s touch for the goal, but most goals need multiple involvements. Just like Shaw’s assist needed Pogba to find him in space with the first time pass, which followed on from quick passing all round.

Yeah sure but you wouldn't give Pogba an assist because of his pass to Shaw would you? Greenwood basically created the first but he doesn't get the assist.

It was a lovely bit of play and he orchestrated the move but to get an assist I think you have to intend to pass to the player who scored. He was passing to a different player. If Martial just receives the pass as normal instead of dummying it we probably don't score there.

It doesn't matter really, just the peculiarities of the assist stat.
 
There's something that confuses me about him that I'm really curious about.
He's 6'3" and a broad, strong looking dude. Yet he's so easily shrugged off when he goes shoulder to shoulder with even the smallest of players.
I'm interested to know why he's not able to use his strength more in those situations.

He’s incredibly strong tbh, he holds opponents off regularly.
 
He genuinely looks like he is enjoying every moment of this season. The reactions to each goal, the confidence in his play. If he can continue this form then a record will definitely be broken this season
 
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