Played very well and scored a cracker but he did overplay a little at times. Sometimes he needs to give it rather than take an extra touch.
6
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 37
- Goals
- 6
- Assists
- 16
- Yellow cards
- 5
- Red cards
- 1
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
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He'd be boring as feck if he changed it, I love that you don't know what Pogba is gonna do; that's part of what makes him great. Matic can be the guy to "do the right thing" every time.
Very good performance, hand up.
If he can gradually turn his default mercurial chaos into measured, mature performances on a regular basis, he'll become a very good player.
If he can gradually turn his default mercurial chaos into measured, mature performances on a regular basis, he'll become a very good player.
I think he's going to get some serious plaudits this season. I feel like he's settled and his quality it's going to finally shine, those pundits that criticised him will be eating their words soon.
I've been a critic of him. Today he showed everything, boss-like performance!
Some of his touches on the ball are absolute filth.
That one in the first half with his head in the centre circle, just lifted to where he wanted it and lost two players in the process.
He's a beast.
That one in the first half with his head in the centre circle, just lifted to where he wanted it and lost two players in the process.
He's a beast.
Great performance. My MOTM.
Wooops wrong thread
Has genuine potential to be the best player in the World, has everything. Love when he bosses games like he did today.
He really was very good today. A few poor decisions here and there - he sometimes holds onto the ball for too long, in my opinion - but any complaints today would be harsh. It seemed like as the game wore on, he felt increasingly comfortable getting forward, knowing that Matic was there to clean up any danger. As they develop more of an understanding, Pogba's influence on the pitch will only grow. He really does have it all, including leadership abilities. If he can consistently contribute offensively, we'll be a real threat this season.
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I doubt that he is a dud. He has remarkable skills and Mourinho needs to find out create a system that makes him shine. Else we have another Veron on our hands. I simply didn't think he was as good as he should have been last season.
But with a full year under his belt, Matic and Carrick to do his running and genuine power and pace ahead of him, I'm hopeful he will justify his price tag and status.
Promising start to the season but as I said before Pogba's real job is to win us the big games so will reserve judgement until we've had a few of those.
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Playing next to Matic will help him loads. I think you can see the mutual respect already. In a midfield two, we will still be suspect against better teams, as West Ham were really bad today so it will be interesting to see how he develops.
Imagine having Martial, Rashford, Miki and Lukaku on the pitch at the same time :/
Imagine having Martial, Rashford, Miki and Lukaku on the pitch at the same time :/
My only criticism of him is that he is still inclined to over complicate things at times, trying to beat another man instead of passing, for example.
Thought he played well today and hope he continues to find the back of the net regularly this season.
Thought he played well today and hope he continues to find the back of the net regularly this season.
Carrick ? Running ?
Someone please gif that sensational lob and run in the middle of the park today.. He looked on another level today.. Plus he keeps the morale high (he gave Martial much needed love after his goal..)
He is a livewire isn't he?
the way he beats west ham's players, is like watching an adult bullying the school kids.
very, very quick feet, sees the opponent moves, bam! the ball is moved so quick, they have no chance.
more of that please pogba,
who cares if you're doing too much,
there are no other midfielder like him, one of a kind.
football is about entertainment! and oh boy you are the entertainment.
the way he beats west ham's players, is like watching an adult bullying the school kids.
very, very quick feet, sees the opponent moves, bam! the ball is moved so quick, they have no chance.
more of that please pogba,
who cares if you're doing too much,
there are no other midfielder like him, one of a kind.
football is about entertainment! and oh boy you are the entertainment.
I agree with this. There seems to be a pretty good understanding between the two of them already. I think Matic's intelligence and composure will really help him. He is a step ahead of Fellaini and Herrera in this respect. The fact Matic can actually move too (unlike Carrick, who may have better intelligence and composure) helps because Pogba doesn't have to cover for him all the time.
I feel you, man. He has that Cantona's or Ibra's aura; that smugness where he knows that he's the shit. Where everyone has to bow to his greatness.
The reason why i want us to play 3 in midfield, with Pogba released of defensive duty. So he can do whatever the feck he wants to do on the pitch. He's a very special player, and deserves that kind of treatment.
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You know he had a good game when there was 15 player threads above this one!
No he doesn't. He had that job against Madrid and was bloody awful. He played box to box against West Ham and was much better. Much as everyone loves this idea of him being a no 10, he's just not good at it.
He was joy to watch. Very good performance, glad he scored the goal.
Love when he dribbles rather than going for simple passes, sometimes we need players to do something out of box.
Love when he dribbles rather than going for simple passes, sometimes we need players to do something out of box.
His dribbling is fantastic as is his ability to pull off an outrageous piece of skill to beat his man. I still feel he holds onto the ball for a-bit too long sometimes, though.
Agreed. I think that's when Jose will drop Mata/Mkhi and play Herrera next to Matic, and move Pogba further forward which should help us immensely, especially with players like Martial/Mkhi/Rashford/Lukaku on the counter.
Agreed. He's actually much better when he has a more disciplined role. He can still do the showboaty stuff but he plays more like an actual midfielder instead of trying to do everything himself. I much prefer him in a 2 man midfield.
Yes he can run with the ball but he's not actually a "great" agile dribbler, he usually just ends up running into dead ends.
Instead in a 2 man midfield he runs through the middle like a steam train and then plays the pass/shot. He's better when he has more options ahead.
Matic is playing with a lot of freedom and looks like he's really enjoying playing for us. I seriously underestimated how good an all round game he has.
Him and Pogba look a very good combination.
Pogba and Matic for a combined £130m in the current climate is wonderful business. Two world-class talents in their respective positions, both of whom dovetail beautifully.
Mourinho's recruitment, vision for his team and selection of players to fit his plans is probably peerless in world football. Very rarely gets it wrong.
Mourinho's recruitment, vision for his team and selection of players to fit his plans is probably peerless in world football. Very rarely gets it wrong.
Pogba and Lukakus back slapping and chest slapping at full time featured harder contact than most UFC fights 
Great performance and the goal was a nice way to wrap it up.
Great performance and the goal was a nice way to wrap it up.
At home against shoddy opposition he'll be fine in a midfield 2; it's when the top 6 arrive that the logical option is Herrera next to Matic, but then you sacrifice an attacking threat to accommodate him as an advanced player.
The simple solution is to bench him sometimes, but his price tag makes that difficult for Mourinho.
His goal was pretty central but fair play to him for capitalising on Hart's kryptonite low to his left side. Good 7/10 performance from him.
The simple solution is to bench him sometimes, but his price tag makes that difficult for Mourinho.
His goal was pretty central but fair play to him for capitalising on Hart's kryptonite low to his left side. Good 7/10 performance from him.
Yeh. That's a fair point. Although last season, he also had average games when playing in midfield two. The logic said that having less defensive duty would maximize his work on attack. But then the closer to the final third, the more crowded it is, thus less room and time for tricks. I still think his skillset and vision are suited for more advance midfield role.
Yh I thought he should have easily dealt with that goal tbf, not knocking Pog's game - he was class - but that wouldn't have got past Dave.
Then you are expecting every goal keeper to be world class like De Gea. Haha.
Credit to Pogba, normally a player would dribble closer into the goal, Joe hart must have to move towards pogba to prevent him coming closer, that opens up the left side of his goal, Pogba understood this, he opened his body, curl it to the left side of Joe Hart.
Accurate or not, it doesn't matter, because the keeper has no chance to dive as he moves to the other side. Any goal keeper will find it difficult to save that.
That's how much ability he got. Our pogba. Love him
That and Joe Hart can't dive to his left any more.
You're giving him too much credit here. Every time he tries to place a long range curling shot off his right foot he goes to that side. It wasn't even one of his better efforts, many of which still get saved by any half decent keeper. It was just Joe Hart being Joe Hart.
Was more about the positioning of Hart. He had moved too far to his right, Pogba knew all he had to do was curl it round him, which he did.
A number of our goals wouldn't have got past De Gea, he's much better in 1 on 1 situations than Hart. Hart's positioning is poor and he commits too early, while De Gea stands his ground, keeps both hands low and feet apart, and makes himself look big while forcing the attacker to commit first. Martial and Lukaku would both have had more trouble scoring on him. We aren't going to be facing keepers of De Gea's class in the PL so I wouldn't knock Pogba's goal on that basis.
Paul pogba is a brilliant talent and were lucky to re sign him. Only thing i would want to see in his game to be corrected is the time he takes on ball to make a pass especially against big teams(its not criticism). He has everything in his locker dribbling, skills, vision with his passing range & vision if he can deliver first time passes even a very organised defense can be breached.
well, statistically how many long range shots are scored apart from Ronaldo or Messi?
Long range shooters is always hit or miss, its either u have that ability to have the eye for goal outside of the box, the ability to hit the ball with multiple technique, slice, curler, lace shots....
my point being, Pogba has that in his locker. Not many players are blessed with that ability to strike the ball outside of the box on consistent basis.
If we replace Pogba in that position with Rashford or Martial, 100% they will go further forward closer to goal. (giving Hart 50/50 chance to save it)
Football is like a chess, in that situation Joe Hart played himself into a check mate position.
Not knocking it, just saying a good GK (not just DDG) would have stopped it. I don't care how we score, whether pea rollers or 40 yard screamers tbh.
Aye, I just wanted to talk about how shit Hart is in comparison to De Gea actually
. I'll never forget his first season here where every week the pundits would talk about Hart's latest 'uncharacteristic mistake' and explain how he was actually much better than our Dave.Haha I know. What's weird is how highly rated he is purely because he's England's No1 - regardless of poor performances and regular errors. Pep was right to ship him out but just awful in replacing him.Aye, I just wanted to talk about how shit Hart is in comparison to De Gea actually
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