Let's see if he can put in consistent performances. I thought he was very good on first game back.
Pogba's Return Role
- Thread starter RedDevilCanuck
- Start date
The return performance pretty much sums up pogba. Some good work, some poor work. At fault for the goal due to a complete lack of effort or desire to close down the player who put the cross in. Luke Shaw had to eventually leave his posistion but its to late by then. Just to add insult to injury he lets the goalscorer run straight past him to have a tap in and pogba just aimlessly jogs around. Classic Jogba.
In my eyes the occansional flashes of brilliance are not worth the zero effort just going through the motions defensive work that consistently cause us problems and drag other players put of posistion.
In my eyes the occansional flashes of brilliance are not worth the zero effort just going through the motions defensive work that consistently cause us problems and drag other players put of posistion.
Last edited:
He had a good game, we generally played well, it was our finishing that let us on, that's mainly on Ronaldo and Rashford
I can accept genuine mistakes. Players miss chances sometimes Bruno missed by far the easiest chance of the night. Without the poor finishing we win the game of course. But with pogba its not a mistake its bone idleness/laziness lack of desire/intensity/effort. The fact is he is at fault for the goal, he dosent do his job for the team. He either goes to close down the player who crosses the ball or covers for Shaw and the tracks the runner into the left back posistion in the end he does nothing and makes no effort to do anything.
That's an interesting take. Wasn't McTominay the left side center midflelder last night?
Maybe at some point i thought mctom was playing at the number 6 personally though.
Anyway either way if you watch the goal mctom is on the right side trying to help dalot after the Intial turnover when the ball gets spread across the pitch to the our left Pogba is by far the closest player to there RWB and he just jogs backwards in the central area making zero effort to affect the play. And then casually allows the goalscorer to run past him in the box and have a tap in. It is as i say classic Jogba.
I’m not his biggest fan attitude wise...but the guy did his bit yesterday. You could see he was out on his feet after 55 minutes. First game back and all. he really is insanely talented. He reminds me of a dad playing with his kids sometimes...other professional midfielders being held off and nutmeged and glided past. The nonchalance of his passing is so natural...not contrived at all...no effort...just part of a motion. And the difference in our presence and physicality when Fred came on was night and day...it just became a slog.
He is very inconsistent and genuinely gives zero fuks about the club. I’ll be glad when this side show is over...but he was excellent yesterday all things considered. Ralf should have hooked him sooner.
Which means that McTominay was out of position based on where he spent the rest of the game. And if McTominay when to the right to help Dalot then where were Dalot and McTominay during the cross because the Boro player was unmarked, you can see Dalot late behind him and McTominay nowhere near him?
Here you have the heatmaps of yesterday's game.
Pogs is one of my fav players. My problem is he’s never matured as a footballer and plays ‘child like’ in his game. It’s funny cause players like Pogs can trick you to think they have had a great game because often as fans we only focus when players are on the ball, Pogs off the ball games is terrible and why if you play him in midfield, you need often two players to do his dirty work.
I’ve just rewatched it. Ridiculous to blame Pogba for the runner on the wing….but he is somewhat guilty of getting back into position rather than tracking the runner who ended up scoring. That’s the downside of offensive players generally. They aren’t switched on to danger. I also feel most of our players, including Pogba, stopped for a split second when the obvious handball occurred. Of course you shouldn’t but in the moment when it’s that clear….it definitely impacted our defenders.
I don’t know where McT was, we somehow had 6 players bunched on the right wing when the Boro fullback picked the ball up. But if McT didn’t track the runner there I’d definitely have said he was somewhat at fault, so it’s only fair to accept some criticism of Pogba here also. That said if you scrutinise any goal you’ll find fault somewhere on some scale and scale is ultimately important. Also important is roles and attributes. Some players are in a team for their defensive attributes and others for their offensive attributes and we fell off a cliff when Pogba came off the pitch.
Looked non existent as usual
We were playing boro by the way
We were playing boro by the way
He’s not. Which is fine….but he clearly isn’t.
We can talk about what he may have done differently but you can't say that he is at fault for the goal. Not when you have 3 other players that abandoned their zone and a right fullback who didn't do his defensive duty properly at the second post. There is three/four players to question before Pogba. Now could he have taken the risk to leave his area and pressure on the left, absolutely but the downside to that is that he leaves the middle of the field completely open for Boro, if the player on the wing makes a successful back pass we then rightfully blame Pogba for being attracted to the ball.
I agree…..I feel he could’ve been more switched on to the danger of the runner who scored though. But he isn’t the only player of his type that simply doesn’t smell danger in that way…..in fact I’d say very few do. It’s easier with a full picture view in landscape than actually in the moment. A Declan Rice for example would have impacted the guy who scored….but he wouldn’t impact the game in the way Pogba did.
Fan forums eh. Peoples ability to read peoples minds on here is quite incredible. For a player that isn’t, not sure why (even as an adult) he’s the only player’s name I have on both Utd and France shirts. That would be kind of strange behaviour for a player that wasn’t.….
He could have been, there is a bit of latency when the Boro player hands the ball. Even without it I' don't think he actually gets there or that most players do. Anyway my point is that it's silly to look at a situation where most of our players are out of position and target one player.
It’s always the same with Pogba….I saw your post regarding the France game in the summer. It’s absolutely correct. Blaming Pogba for that ignores any form of scale and context, he may never lose the ball. Losing the ball when surrounded by players happens all the time in the game and is usually accepted in this regard without question. It actually happened in the same game in the move which led to Pogba’s goal I believe? Or perhaps one of the other France goals but in any case a Swiss player lost the ball on the edge of his own box. Not a thing was made of it, and not a thing would ever have been made of it. But if it were Pogba it obviously would/was a massive issue that didn’t in anyway fit to the scale.
It’s the same as dribbling in your own box and getting tackled is far higher on the scale than getting tackled in the opponents half which leads eventually to a goal. The first is not acceptable but generally the second isn’t questioned. Tackles are part of the game and happen regularly…..when it’s Pogba however suddenly it’s a crime.
That’s the crux of my issues with the criticism Pogba has had consistently in his time here. It doesn’t fit with the scale.
Umm hmm
Hmmm…indeed.
Was excellent yesterday and shows how we are a different team with a good progressive player in the midfield.
His passing and ball retention was quality.
Hope he stays as replacing him is going to be tricky
His passing and ball retention was quality.
Hope he stays as replacing him is going to be tricky
I like Pogs but…….should be your tag line. I’m not saying nobody would ever criticise their favourite players, but I am saying that it’s extremely unlikely that someone would never praise their favourite player….or follow it with a huge dose of negativity any time they posted anything remotely positive.
Of course you can’t read people’s minds but you can look at things with a balance of probability.
……or maybe I’m just a balanced individual. I love my children but it doesn’t mean I can’t see their faults. I love my club more than any individual player and Pogs more times than not in 6 years, has been inconsistent. Like said, unlike some fans, my liking of a player is never unconditional.….that said, the only player I have on the back of both France and Utd shirts since we signed him.
Which is fine……but on the balance of probabilities, looking at your post history, I would highly doubt that Pogba is one of your fav players. Even this post suggests he isn’t. There’s undoubtedly a negative regard that is consistent and people don’t generally hold a negative regard to their favourite anything even when they might see their faults.
Your post history isn’t particularly balanced at all, you tend to agree with negative posts and post negative slanted replies. If I look hard enough and far enough I’m sure I’d find a purely positive post, although you rarely seem to post in his performance thread to boot but I’m sure that’s also purely balance and in keeping with the way people generally react to their favourite things.
I’d also say that football in general doesn’t lend to balance, it’s very emotive and that again isn’t probably a trait associated strongly to favourites in sport.
You’re negativity balanced towards him I would say….if he’s one of your favourites god help the rest.
Just because a players isnt in there starting position dosent mean they are out of position, there is certain amount of fluidity to our play so sometimes players are in different posistions, when we lost the ball high up the pitch mctom was over on the right and pogba was central, mctom attempted to regain possession immediately and pogba dropped off. When the ball was worked out to our left pogba was the nearest player and 100% should of made an attempt to close the player down instead he allowed the boro to advance half the length of the pitch completely unchecked, he allowed the player to run into a dangerous posistion without making any attempt to put pressure on. That can't happen.
If he goes out there and the ball comes back inside so be it, there is players behind and to the right of pogba that may be able to cover it. Also there was alot less space in the central areas much harder to make something happen.
In my opinion in that situation pogba has to close the player down and if nothing else give away a free kick and give us a chance to re-set ourselves defensivley and sort our shape out.
In terms of dalot and mctom and getting back they were both caught up the pitch, if your gonna press this is gonna happen every game probably. Maybe if other players had done there job and slowed the attack down than they may off had a chance to get back in position but because we gave the boro player the freedom of old trafford to go forward (he literally booted the ball infront of himself and sprinted after it 3 or 4 times as jogba trotted back in the middle) than there wasn't alot of hope for players trying to get back.
And he might just star and win another WC with France.
Pogba was not main reason we gave up the goal.
Last edited:
Yeah for France he would sprint across and close that player down, he cant be arsed for us. Too much effort. Honestly if pogba sprints out wide to close the player down than I can almost gaurentee the chance that led to the goal dosent happen. And we are not talking about a split second decision here or a matter of ability he had plenty of time to weigh situation up and make the right decision, he weighed it up and he couldn't be arsed to cover the ground its as simple as that.
We have 3 B2B midfielders and 0 DM. Clear as day that is the issue. No point in blaming Fred, Pogba, McTominay. It's idiotic by management to not buy a proper DM and then expect these players to evolve to a role they have no expertise in.
If he sprints wide Maguire is alone against 3 Boro players. And we all rightfully criticize him for chasing the ball.
Maguire, Shaw and varane are all there against the 3 boro players. Shaw gets dragged put of position because of pogbas not existent closing down creating the gap between himself and maguire that the goalscorer ends up in all alone 3 yards out.
May have to agree to disagree I understand what your saying and maybe if pogba goes out there the ball ends up coming central sooner and boro score anyway. Who knows? Everything is easy in hindsight.
In my opinion and if I was coach Pogba would be getting it in the neck from me about it. But I'm not a top level football coach. Probably a good thing.
You think that the left back taking care of a player on the right wing is being dragged out of position while the right side center midfielder is at fault? And when Boro's player crosses Varane is about 7-8 meters behind the target of the cross and he is the closest player.
Maybe I'm crazy but in that action before the cross, two players are in position Pogba and Shaw. I don't know why McTominay and Pogba were both completely on the right side and why McTominay wasn't in the position he occupied the entire game but to be fair to him he retreated properly, as did Pogba and Shaw. Maguire ran too deep and put Boro's players onside but that's easy to say when you are not playing. Dalot and Varane were completely out of position and didn't help.
If you want to blame a player in particular there are a few before Pogba but the reality is that it was simply a good counter attack, United were totally disorganized and it still took a handball for Boro to score.
He’s so good though isn’t he? Powerful player.
The forum isn’t my barometer nor do I share every single thought about Utd on here either. Not sure why you think that forensically my post on here are an indicator of anything other than a thought often within the constraints of a few type lines on my iPad. Your armchair hypotheses about what I think is way beyond your perceived narrow opinion and how I choose to evidence that isn‘t for yours or others benefit. Honestly some of our fans really need to grow up and stop being so literal.
He showed he could beat a player with ease and pass a ball correctly so looked completely out of place in our team.
yet still there isn’t a positive comment about the subject matter
Not sure you are fully getting it, I’ll say it one more time, then I’m leaving it there. This forum is not a ‘capture all’ about my view about Utd or it’s players. I’ve been supporting this club for nearly 50 years and I’m pretty sure that’s not reflected in my views either. I told you he’s one of my fav players, the only player I have on both France and Utd shirts but I’m not blinded to the fact in general he has been a disappointment here. There has been many reasons, is not all on him but we have not seen his brilliance enough.
Perfect
Is he better than out other CM's - comfortably
Is he committed to the cause - Not likely
Is his agent a cretin - Most defintely
Club will have to fork out some serious dough to replace this guy in the summer. Or we will be left with Matic, McFred and Garner
Is he committed to the cause - Not likely
Is his agent a cretin - Most defintely
Club will have to fork out some serious dough to replace this guy in the summer. Or we will be left with Matic, McFred and Garner
On his return, we played a 4231 and created the most chances. Much better control in midfield and an xG of 4.2, not bad at all.
I don’t think fred will start many matches understandably with pogba ahead of him. I believe at this moment, we have half addressed the midfield problems.
I don’t think fred will start many matches understandably with pogba ahead of him. I believe at this moment, we have half addressed the midfield problems.
Another player thread 
why don’t you lot just post in player thread rather than starting new threads? Is their a competition for how many threads a member starts? All your creating is spam threads.
why don’t you lot just post in player thread rather than starting new threads? Is their a competition for how many threads a member starts? All your creating is spam threads.There are multiple mistakes for the goal, but the first one is that Pogba doesn't do anything, he needs to get to a player to mark them because Shaw is stuck between marking the central player and going out left, Pogba needed to mark one of them and not leave him to do both.