THIS season is still far from over at Old Trafford.
Fair enough, the title may be heading to the blue half of the city, but there’s still the FA Cup and a game against Huddersfield Town this weekend to focus on, and as we’ve seen in the Champions League, if you can somehow manage to get a bit of momentum, you never know where it might lead.
The big talking point this week though has been about Paul Pogba and his relationship with manager Jose Mourinho.
Like so many others, I’m not privy to the internal goings on at the club so I can only comment on what I see from the outside, or draw on my experience as a player under Sir Alex Ferguson.
When I joined United, Sir Alex signed me because of my defensive qualities and what I could add to the team from that perspective.
The improvements I made and tweaks to how I performed were implemented along the way, and I guess in Pogba’s case that’s what we are not seeing at the moment, because he’s being asked to play in a position he’s not entirely comfortable with.
We know he’s got outstanding qualities but while he isn’t being played in his favoured role, on the left hand side of a midfield three, he finds it difficult.
Certainly defensively anyway. It’s frustrating if you’re a United supporter because we’ve seen what he can do in that role for Juventus and at times for France.
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The game comes very easy to Pogba and I just wonder, if long-term, he might be better suited in the number ten role, where he can do what he likes more or less in that final part of the pitch.
Pogba’s at his best when he can be creative and make things happen going forward. Remove the shackles and get him in positions where he can go at players one versus one, or has the freedom to run in behind and ask questions of the opposition defence that way.
We know already that he gets on well with Romelu Lukaku, so why not try and get them nearer to one another on the pitch too, and see how that works.
Footballers are commodities and it’s a very different game to when I played. But somehow, Mourinho has to get Pogba playing in a way that makes the team better, and in the end, I think he will.
Mourinho has a track record of success everywhere he’s been and he’ll know he has a better chance of continuing that run with Pogba in his starting XI.
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