There's no "free rein" in the way you imagine it. Lampard, Toure, Gerrard, they all followed their managers' instructions to the letter. Chelsea tore the PL apart during Mourinho's first stint there not because Lampard had the licence to roam on the pitch but because they always seem to find an extra body in the midfield with Lampard occupying the exact pockets of space Mourinho had instructed him to.......................
...........................Tactically, they've been experiments with Pogba's role in the team. Not his position but his role. He's been deployed in the left side which is the one Mourinho wants to overload and he's also been deployed on the right side of the midfield where we aim to find more open spaces to exploit. He's had both good and bad games in both roles.
(RedDevil'sAdvocate - bear in mind that I am responding to you but also the other posts indirectly in this debate so cut me some slack if I don't fully represent your views porperly)
I am of course aware that there is no such thing as a true "free rein" in football without defensive responsibilities. I should have chosen a better phrase. I think every player should have the responsibility to close down the opposition - Pogba is no exception. Lampard / Gerrard / Toure all knew that they had to get back , tackle , and close down the opposition. Do really think that Pogba doesn't actually know this basic football fact? If he lacks even that basic football knowledge and application then Jose has wasted a heap of money on a completely inadequate footballer. If this were really true then we should be asking ourselves whether Mourinho himself is the sharpest knife in the drawer himself for actually buying him.
The problem you have is that if you go too far in your criticism of Pogba then you end up criticising Mourinho by default and screwing up your own argument that "Jose knows best". It's his effing job to assess Pogba's ability to be able to fit the system he wants - before he buys him. Especially with massive transfer fees. You can say Pogba is a lazy prima donna , or a footballer who doesn't understand the game or a child yadda yadda etc etc until you are blue in the face. The problem you will be logically left with then is that Jose made a massive misjudgement with a stack of money that we can't afford to mess about with if we are to compete with the top clubs. If the manager is this "supreme authority" then he also has "supreme responsibility" If the Pogba experiment doesn't work out because Pogba turns out not to have the brains and character to make it work - is it Pogba's fault or the manager's fault for buying him? If my employer takes on someone who is incompetent then it's the boss I am ultimately angry with not the guy who creates all the problems at work.
So , assuming that you don't think that Jose has made a massive misjudgement and that he's not an incompetent plonker for not being able to asses Pogba's character and football brains - what's really going on then?
For me it's a deeper issue. A basic clash of football philosophies and a managers instincts versus a players instincts. Jose is by default negative , cautious , reactive. Pogba seems to me to be proactive , attacking , more for taking risks. I think Pogba wants to tackle , win the ball , use his physicality to affect the game. A bit like Rooney's mentality. He's not a Matic though. If you watch the Spurs game the problem was that he was trying to go out there and affect the game by engaging players in midfield. The problem was that he was getting by-passed and Spurs just passed around him. He's a "get in your face" midfielder , not a "hold your position" midfielder like Matic. He needed to play in a 3 not a 2 versus Spurs. If we don't have the players then Mourinho should have bought a basic 20 million DM in January to sit alongside Matic and free Pogba up more.
I also don't think that your description of how Jose used Lampard is correct. He couldn't completely control or predict exactly how Lampard would show up in attacking positions. Football is not chess. Lampard was give licence to "do his thing" and show up in the box when he thought it was right. A significant part of what happens on a pitch is instinctive and not predictable even though there are tactics behind it. Also comparisons with Ozil , Sneijder , Ronaldo don't really work. None of those players really had the same ability to play a Matic type role. One of the issues with Pogba is that he is good enough , big enough and strong enough to be a Matic , even better than Matic. Many pundits seem to think that that's why he suffers, I've seen it in kids football. The player who is versatile and can play different positions suffers because the manager CAN almost play them anywhere. That means that they don't often get to play where they should . They get sacrificed to a system because they are too good.
Let me put it this way. Pogba could probably be moulded into a brilliant centre half - quick , physical , tall , aggressive. He could be better than Ferdinand if you moulded him. By why would you do that to him when he can devastate defences?
Just because he
can and has the ability to play DM with Matic doesn't mean he
should be there. Anyway , I'm off to take my Ferrari down to Aldis for a shop.