I think it goes a lot deeper than that. Players who like to express themselves struggle with Mourinho over a longer period of time. Take Hazard for example. 14/15 season the best player in the PL. 4/5 months later he's not performing and doesn't score a goal until April the next year. Was maybe the biggest dip in form of all the Chelsea players. They fell out and had their disagreements You've got KDB and Salah. There are very few flair players he doesn't disagree with. Martial can play 4 good games in a row and one poor game - gets dropped. Fellaini has had his fair share of poor performances but you won't hear anything. There's no doubt he has his favorites just like LVG before him did and they'll get more leeway than the others. Herrera for eg was out of favour with LVG but Mourinho arrives and he becomes one of the most trusted players in the team. We didn't know Herrera had it in him to perform like he did last season but under a different manager with a different voice he was a transformed player. It's not impossible that some of our current squad will feel more comfortable with a different manager and we won't get to see them express themselves until that particular person arrives which is why we've got to stay patient with the likes of Martial etc.
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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So do I. But, there seems to be very little indication that Pogba will come back more determined or suddenly develop more maturity.
Being surrounded by an entourage of "yes men" and ass kissers isn't a good thing in this case.
It isn’t deeper than that. It isn’t a coincidence that the four players, Pogba, Mkhi, Martial and Shaw are all deemed talented but have been questioned on their mentality, work rate, desire etc by people other than Jose as well. These are the players the manager is harsh with. They need to show more and take responsibility.
Tired of people just making excuses for these players.
As far as I'm concerned Mourinho has bee defending Pogba non stop since the latter joined. When everyone was on his back due to his price tag and attacking his performance, Mourinho was slaughtering the pundits for it, and this season he even went as far to slaughter Scholes for criticizing Paul. No one has defended Pogba in the media more than Mourinho. Some criticism after that is fair.
Actually this quote doesn't even look like criticism for me.
Actually this quote doesn't even look like criticism for me.
I disagree. It doesn't go deeper than the effort the players put in and the realistic expectation of what they can and should produce. There is no law with Jose that flair players through no fault of their own find themselves out of favour after x amount of time. It makes far less sense than effort shown and performances with regards to ability.
It's not looking great at the moment, but he needs to really start performing if he wants to play a part in the WC. He'll likely only have one more WC to play in. I also don't see a clear candidate club that would break the bank for him. He's got to get his head in the game.
The vast majority of black players are not labelled with having a bad attitude (or gangsta whatever that means) because, their actions indicate that they have a good attitude! (There are quite a few black players in our team that are praised for their attitude) No matter what race you are, brandishing your wealth in public and making music videos will rub some people the wrong way.
Have a look at Valencia's public profile, it's quite boring like most professionals that are very dedicated to their craft. The same can be said for Zlatan. Sanchez pretty much posts about his family, dogs and football. Pogba on the other hand seems to have so much non football stuff in there.
Remember when we had that hashtag dedicated to Pogba against Liverpool at OT, and he proceeded to have an absolute stinker? Of course he could have had a blinder that game as well, but it's reasonable to say that his game was affected.
If anything, Pogba needs a PR manager. Posting about haircuts and promo vids after a loss or run of poor form is not good PR. If he replaced those with training pictures or not posting at all then his public image would be a lot better.
Nothing of course. Why are you asking me this ?
Pogba seems to be relatively boring as well. He posts videos of himself dancing and he gets a new haircut every once in a while. Nothing he does deserves the furor he gets.
He's not boring he's just not you. Its okay, not your culture.
Do people really think pogba will be gone this summer?
If he can't handle a little kick up the arse then it's his fault. The onus is on him to improve.
If he can't handle a little kick up the arse then it's his fault. The onus is on him to improve.
He's not going anywhere end of season. Let's just hope he doesn't sell our best players before he loses the dressing room as usual.
Don't confuse lack of defensive skills with just being lazy.
I don't think Mourinho is trying to turn Pogba into a hard tackling DM. I think he just want a tad more effort from Pogba. All the strolling around, not sensing danger, losing headers easily is costing us shots and goals.
A good example is Scholes who was never good defensively but put in a shift and help out the team. Pogba, with a better physique should really do better.
I don't think Mourinho is trying to turn Pogba into a hard tackling DM. I think he just want a tad more effort from Pogba. All the strolling around, not sensing danger, losing headers easily is costing us shots and goals.
A good example is Scholes who was never good defensively but put in a shift and help out the team. Pogba, with a better physique should really do better.
It is so pathetic that this is considered some highly critical and inappropriate thing for Mourinho to say when he has publicly backed Pogba through previous periods of poor form before against all types of criticism. The reality is at some point it cannot always just be about the manager. The tactics being used now are the same ones used early in the season when Pogba was tearing it up.
Pogba is a fantastic talent and player but he's been far short of it in the last two months not just in his efficacy but also his effort which is more damning. It's time for him to step up and show his class. When we look more solid defensicely and functional in possession and attack with McTominay in a midfield 2 with Matic than Pogba the problem lies with the player more than the manager.
Pogba is a fantastic talent and player but he's been far short of it in the last two months not just in his efficacy but also his effort which is more damning. It's time for him to step up and show his class. When we look more solid defensicely and functional in possession and attack with McTominay in a midfield 2 with Matic than Pogba the problem lies with the player more than the manager.
This. Fans have short term memories. And it is always good, for some weird reason, to build up the anti-Jose momentum with these guys.
He also received a bit of criticism for pogseries
I have no idea if that's true or not, I don't believe it anyway, but have you actually seen some pictures and videos of Depay? Have you watched his interviews?
Cameras follow Pogba around regardless so I have no idea why that would be a big deal. Not too different from some of the shows Rio Ferdinand had during his career.
What is so wrong with his pictures and his interviews?
These are the kind of posts I don't get. How do you even know that for sure? What are you basing these on? Tabloid reports? Gossip columns? Instagram?
How do you even know who works twice as hard? Are you even on the training ground? Does Mourinho texts you weekly training reports and whispers who his favourites are? Maybe, just maybe there might be other tactical reasons why Mou starts certain players more over others? I'm not defending Mou here, but sometimes you just got to wonder how one comes up with conclusions like that.
"Teacher's pets" ffs
People actually criticising Mourinho for saying that Pogba needs to look at himself a bit for poor form 
Jose has taken on many people including ex-United legends on behalf of Pogba.
Jose has taken on many people including ex-United legends on behalf of Pogba.
Yeah but he will get called out if it affects his performance. He has been off form for a while so when he does stuff like this, it’s not surprising a few people question his attitude and priorities
He criticized scholes, Neville for pogba and also many other pundits of other clubs. It is time pogba paid him back and get on with his job.
This stuff has zero correlation to his performances on the pitch. It is intellectually lazy to assume it is effecting him negatively on the pitch. City and Juve's form has not been hurt by documentary cameras following them.
Absolute Rubbish. Pure hypocrisy from players of an era where behaviours like drinking and gambling were the norm. If you are naive to think it didn't impact on his game, you are mistaken and maybe his recovery from injuries was hindered by what he was doing off it. How much better could he have been or prolonged his career maybe. That is my point which is as great as Robbo was, he can't make references to what players do off the field when he was doing something that's directly impacted on his. Worst than that, he was the club captain and you could argue his leadership off the field lead to potentially one of the greatest CB is leave the club early and also one of the clubs brightest young stars career being derailed.
Absolutely. It's that subliminal people dont realise they are doing it. It's interesting that DDG is into heavy metal band Slipknot, quite extreme as bands go but know body is making any judgement about David's hair, his clothes or what he drives as a consequence. It's hardly like he's got just a 'short back and side' normal haircut What no stereotypical view of heavy metal anyone? I guess the prism is more of a normal one for some than others. Of all the songs they could come up with for Rom, was the size of his penis. No white guys on the team with large penis's then or why wasn't it a song about him having a small penis?
Don't want it to be a race thing to deflect from Pogs poor form but when you step back and read the comments, I'm not sure it can totally be dismissed. It's interesting that in sport, the more white black sports men they are, the more palatable they are to some white people. The more 'black' they are perceived, the more racial stereotypes come along with it. Maybe Pogba has to be more Frank Bruno.....but we all know where losing your identity sadly led him to.
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I agree Pogba needs to look at his own form, I'm sure he will do that. All players go through bad spells.People actually criticising Mourinho for saying that Pogba needs to look at himself a bit for poor form
Jose has taken on many people including ex-United legends on behalf of Pogba.
I think it's more that it's seemingly unnecessary and just continues the perception of a problem, when he could have used the international break as a positive. It also mirrors his reaction to everything since the Sevilla game. Jose seems to be taking no responsibility for anything, seems unwilling to answer any criticism and just seems to be throwing everything at individual players.
I would generally agree with you and have posted that Mou needs to take some blame himself. That said, he is right to call out Pogba for really underperforming.
People aren't saying Mourinho should take the blame.
There is pressure on both managers and players due to the quality of the football being played.
The last thing he needs is to fuel speculation he and his player don't see eye to eye.
The journalist started baiting him, mentioning how well Pogba played for France. Mourinho said he doesn't comment on international performances (despite commenting on McTominay's). The question now went to why hes not playing well here. Thats where you get this response.
I think it's partly because of his irritation at being seen as partly responsible for Pogba's form.
He could have deflect the question in another way.
There is pressure on both managers and players due to the quality of the football being played.
The last thing he needs is to fuel speculation he and his player don't see eye to eye.
The journalist started baiting him, mentioning how well Pogba played for France. Mourinho said he doesn't comment on international performances (despite commenting on McTominay's). The question now went to why hes not playing well here. Thats where you get this response.
I think it's partly because of his irritation at being seen as partly responsible for Pogba's form.
He could have deflect the question in another way.
Not sure if it is correct to take a player's price tag into consideration when discussing performances, I think on ability it probably is, on effort it probably isn't. Though Pogba was overpriced, then watched the market skyrocket and thought, wait and see. Since then have only really been surprised by his inability to take games by the scruff of the neck. Seems to spend too much time going missing, which is not what a "talisman" does. Who is to blame? Pogba or Jose? Probably a bit of both.
As a City fan I used to get frustrated at quite a few of our players, when Pep came in he cleared them out, anyone without the right ethic went, I now struggle to name a player who is under performing on a regular basis, they all run further, tackle more and in KDB's case whinge when they don't think teammates do the same. I think that comes from the manager. However regardless of the manager he has to take some responsibility, at his price i assume he was bought to be a leader, and he is clearly not doing that at present. I suppose the saving grace is that if United wanted to part ways with him, under the present transfer market conditions they probably would make a profit.
Introducing Sanchez probably hasn't helped Pogba's work ethic.
As a City fan I used to get frustrated at quite a few of our players, when Pep came in he cleared them out, anyone without the right ethic went, I now struggle to name a player who is under performing on a regular basis, they all run further, tackle more and in KDB's case whinge when they don't think teammates do the same. I think that comes from the manager. However regardless of the manager he has to take some responsibility, at his price i assume he was bought to be a leader, and he is clearly not doing that at present. I suppose the saving grace is that if United wanted to part ways with him, under the present transfer market conditions they probably would make a profit.
Introducing Sanchez probably hasn't helped Pogba's work ethic.
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Don't want to labour the point but brandishing his wealth or making videos? Have you seen the cars that the players drive to training, what are they doing then?Not sure I've watched any MTV episodes of Cribs on Pogs.
Take the racial stereotypes out of Pogs and you are left with a very well paid football with a particular taste in clothes. On that note, I was in shopping Flannels (expensive clothes shop in Manchester). It was the start of the summer season in clothes and basically Giggs (still playing at that time) was there with his dresser having first dibs on everything new, and no one could go to the men's department until he and his dresser were done. Could have done it before the shop opened or when it had closed, nope 11am....
They all brandish their wealth just in different ways....
I guess a lot of people don't check Darmian twitter. Go see what some of our fans wish him for a new year when he posted that 2017. was the best year of his life (tweet contained pictures of him with Europa League trophy and pictures of his wedding). And now you can imagine what would happen if he is more exposed in social media. Some players shut down their profiles because of dog's abuse.
It has nothing to do with race imo, it's performance related. Oh, yeah, and because many people are complete morons.
It has nothing to do with race imo, it's performance related. Oh, yeah, and because many people are complete morons.
So, are you suggesting there is no issue with Pogba's attitude and the criticism is only there because of this inherent racism?
Or are you suggesting the inherent racism is blaming his poor attitude on his lifestyle?
As far as I can see, he gets criticised for a poor attitude because he's an immature man child with an inflated opinion of his game and a terrible attitude.
I don't think we're talking about social media trolls.
We're talking about main stream media, discussing of field things
We had things like Memphis shopping in Tescos, we have had things like Sterling apparently having 3/4 kids with 3/4 different mothers (not true as well). There are many other cases of it as well.
Like the Memphis stuff that was going around in the media was some of the strangest things I've seen, as if to say no other players had any fancy cars etc.
To me its this, and it happens quite a lot.
Posting videos having fun with your family and looking after your mother, doesn't seem like an immature man child to me.
Again we should keep it to the pitch, footballers are allowed lives outside of football.
All this talk about what he does on instagram. Work harder on the pitch and take more responsibility. Guy has outstanding ability and talent. Blaming Mourinho is just a cop out.
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Agreed. I have never once gone on any of Pogba's social media sites. My opinion of his maturity (or lack thereof) is completely to do with his performances on the pitch and comments thereon.
Not sure why people are so worked up if Pogba gets criticized. His off the field activities are all good as long as he delivers on the pitch, he failed to do so in the last few months. And in doing so he looks like he doesn't give a f*ck. Having such a pathetic display in the CL game, and then he goes and post about his regular life like nothing happened, will rub people the wrong way.
I for one changed my opinion of him drastically. Previously I had him as a potential candidate for captaincy, now I wouldn't care if he was sold in the summer and replaced with a less talented player who would leave his heart on the pitch.
I for one changed my opinion of him drastically. Previously I had him as a potential candidate for captaincy, now I wouldn't care if he was sold in the summer and replaced with a less talented player who would leave his heart on the pitch.
And people say football fans are reactionary/fickle
As I remember there were question marks all over Beckham celebrity image (Fergie had real issues with it) and if it does affect his game. And he played on an extremely high level. I just think there would be very little if any questions if Pogba performs. Not that I personally have any problems with what he does off the field.
Yep this is exactly the problem with Mourinho. His inconsistency when it comes to backing and protecting players publicly. He has those players he'd come up with any sort of bs to excuse and save them face(still remember the Fellaini one when he gave away a bad pass which costed us a goal against Leicester on the community shield. Mourinho cane up with some over the top explanation saying the grass was greased up a bit which slowed down the ball when Fellaini back passed hence allowing Vary to reach the ball before it got to DeGea
). Mourinho would defend the likes of Lukaku and Matic like he's done for the former before. When he wasn't scoring Jose defended and protected him, downplayed his poor form and diverted attention.
Then you have other players whom Mourinho would never bother to stick his neck out for, normally those are the ones he doesn't fancy. If it's not the case, it either because he's having a falling out with those players hence no more backing from him which is what I suspect to be the case with Pogba. I'm sure last year Mourinho would have come out with something to protect Pogba given their relationship wasn't as it is right now. Leaving him to hang dry just further show how Pogba has crossed on the side of players Mourinho doesn't fancy anymore as much.
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