Devil may care
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- Jan 7, 2010
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Since 'playmaker' means different things to different schools of thought in football, I might probably be off point here but let me assume you mean the more traditional playmaker. I actually think Pogba will make a very fine playmaker. Traditionally, a playmaker is the guy who controls the flow of the team's offensive play, and is often involved in passing moves that lead to goals. Vision, technique, a cutting passing ability, creativity, decent dribbling skills and a knack for shooting when openings show up, are traits one would typically find in a traditional playmaker. Pogba has all these traits. I know he played mostly from the left of the attacking front in Juve but think about it, Pogba's uniqueness is his hybrid of traits that you rarely find packed into one player. I think this is exactly why his managers have found him to be the easiest person to sacrifice when it comes to positioning. In the Euros, because he was more versatile, Pogba could be pulled back and asked to take a less offensive role, so he was. In United, Jose could do the same in his preferred 4-2-3-1 formation, when it seemed Pogba was having a bad patch going forward. Rather than remove him outrightly, it seemed an easier option to reposition him because he was the type of player you could move around easily due to the different abilities in his locker.
I think Pogba can be a pretty good offensive midfield playmaker.
To me a playmaker is the CM that controls the tempo of his teams play, not really an offensive player nor always creative, but the player that has the patience, intelligence and game reading ability to move the players around with his passing, sometimes taking 5 simple passes to position things to make the cutting pass into the forwards. Pogba is best when he sees less of the ball and when he recieves it in the attacking 3rd where he can create a chance or fashion an opening for a shot, Pirlo rationed how much he saw of the ball at Juve and it was by far the best and most productive football off his career, when he sees too much of the ball he gets impatient and tries to force things, when he is older he may well be a playmaker and thrive deeper, but for the next few years he needs to remain an offensive cog in the midfield 3 IMO, not the one responsible for running it.