There was one majestic through ball he played non-chalantly to Martial yesterday (Martial was on the left wing). Can we get a gif of that please
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he should be taken off penalties, as mentioned by other posters his conversion isn't great.
Another ok performance, I'm not gunna brand him as exceptional and laud praise on him like many others. He's performing like a decent midfielder, does some things well and others sloppy.
That run up is honestly one of the worst trends in football. It looks so stupid and it doesn't seem to benefit the player taking the penalty at all. Players look foolish even when they do score. When they don't it's just embarrassing
First a nice and quick combinations before he made the pass too... it actually looked like decent footbal!
Was it a change of tactics from mourinho? Or was it our player start giving an arse?
I think the story about him being gagged and mourinho mentioning entourage in the post match interview reflect his current relationship with the gaffer
I'm talking about his general conversion rate, not just this season specifically. I've seen Pogba score way more penalties that I've seen him miss in his career so far, in fact I would bet his career conversion rate to be around 90% simply because he doesn't miss often. Let the man take penalties like he's always done it. It's not pointless at all, that's how he gets into his penalty zone and he should keep doing it. Some others take long runs, some fast, some slow, others stand within a yard of the ball, and they are some who take nearly a minute standing still just getting into the right mindset. People can criticize Pogba when he has a bad game or makes some wrong decisions, but not on ridiculous things like how he runs or conducts himself as he plays.
Did he tell you this? please elaborate.
The agenda I spoke about was for overly focusing on his errors and blowing them out of proportion, not for the bizarre issues posters are having with his penalty run up. His run up isn't an error and my post was clearly pushing back against those who even consider it an issue.
Made one big error that unfortunately lead to the penalty and goal. Was great apart from that, very strong and confident in posession.
Exactly. Don't even know what's the point in all that.
That pass was amazing
The error that led to the penalty and goal was Smalling's ill-advised tackle. Midfielders, especially creative ones, will lose the ball from time to time when trying things, it wasn't even close to an error that should have posters knickers in a twist.
It was Pogba's fault. Smalling's tackle was stupid I agree but you just cannot lose the ball in your own half the way Pogba did.
Pogba lost the ball, his error was giving Mata the benefit of doubt that he would control his chipped pass under pressure. The fault for the penalty and subsequent goal is on Smalling's tackle, I can't believe I'm actually having to say this, did we watch the same match?
It's about Pogs man, they can't help themselves. From a simple bad pass they;ll ramble on about his hair, his penalty run up, his social media and so on, it's starting to be a bit boring tbh, he should be given a break, at least by our own fecking fans.
It is actually the opposite. Pogba's chip was stupid but it was Smalling's fault.
Really embarrassing coming from so called fans of the club.
Half of the fan base was the same regarding Ronaldo, declared a show pony until he started whacking in 30+ goals a season.
Expected reaction. You can't, you just can't try chipping people in your own half being so close to defensive line.It's Pogba, Martial, De Gea and Shaw that are the future of this team. Its strange that only De Gea has not received wild and mostly unwarranted criticism and abuse on here. I'll admit I lost faith in Shaw till Christmas last year and saw getting a new left back as the best option, but never went as far as abusing him. Needs to stop.
Is it safe to say that he will never be as good as Zidane?
Zidane was 24 when he left Bordeaux for Juventus. Pogba is still only 25 and has achieved much more than Zidane at the same age. I would wait a few more years before I would pass judgment.
Best CM in the world.
At this moment in time, the positives he bring outweigh his negatives by a large margin.
He is literally our entire attack. If it goes through him, we look dangerous.
As stupid as that chip was yesterday, 75% of the time, better defenders would probably deal with the aftermath. But it didn't affect the overall result drastically, and we should have scored more goals. So I can't and won't berate him for it, because ultimately he played a huge part in winning the game.
He is literally our entire attack. If it goes through him, we look dangerous.
As stupid as that chip was yesterday, 75% of the time, better defenders would probably deal with the aftermath. But it didn't affect the overall result drastically, and we should have scored more goals. So I can't and won't berate him for it, because ultimately he played a huge part in winning the game.
It's safe to say this is one shite post.
There can be some debate about this but he's definitely unique. There isn't a more all rounded midfielder. He is 8/10 in almost every facet which is why it's difficult to say what his best attribute is.
He also charged forward soon afterwards and put a chance right on a plate for Lukaku to restore the two goal cushion. Scored the first, assisted the second, great attitude after their goal, delighted with him.
Of course, it’s up for debate. But for me personally, no way I’m having that Modric and Kroos are better than him. That said, when you win 3 CLs in a row, you automatically have only positives looked at.
VVD went from being just VVD to ‘the best defender in the world’ simply because he plays for a bigger and better side now. If Pogba was at Real for the last 3 years, not a chance it would even be debated for me.
The only thing they have over Pogba is consistency. Playing in a "finished" team works wonders. Individually though Pogba can do everything they can IMO.
If Pogba played for RM next to Casemiro and Modric they'd be no worse off.
Not even sure that’s true. I’ve said many times that Pogba’s ‘inconsistency’ is MASSIVELY overstated. He is usually the best player on the pitch. The main thing is nobody cares about a misplaced pass or whatever if you’re winning. Players like Kroos, Modric or in hindsight, Scholes have had their bad games, passes etc wiped clean from records and memories. That’s how it works when your team is successful. Very hard to compare a good player from a winning team to a good player from an average side. Typically, when you play for a poor side, the focus is on what you can’t do. The things that contribute to why you’re side is not great. Imagine Pogba was spoken about solely from the perspective of what he does well? Like if he were English. There’s more than enough to focus on, apart from the 5% they do.
Nobody was saying how great Kroos looked in the World Cup.
Without a doubt none of those midfielders have the same responsibility pogba is given in the attack. No player has had more shots on the goal this season and no player has been involved in more goals since mourinho arrived. Modric and those guys are barely involved in the attack. It's mostly marcelo crossing for ronaldo and benzema that was making the difference.
If we actually had world class attackers here there's no doubt he would be more highly regarded and allowed to focus on the 'midfield part' without extra pressure.
I hope martial is soon at that level.
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Played really well for a lot of the game yesterday. His pass inside Coleman to Martial was one of the passes of the season, ridiculous how easy he made that look.
Have you seen his penalties? Except for one penalty which he successfully hit in the top corner against Leicester, every one of his penalties has been hit at a comfortable height for the keeper and it is devoid of any real power. It is easy to see that he’s trying to keep his option open and wait for the keeper to commit. When the keeper doesn’t commit Pogba doesn’t quite know what to do and just shoots without any real conviction. The agenda thing is just stupid. He takes crap penalties and it is completely okay to say so in a discussion board.
He has a little over 70% conversion rate in his career, so you would lose a bet. So, it is not great and I do think this way doesn't help him (besides looking a bit silly). But, until he changes it and we have a chance to see if it gets better, it's a pointless debate.
He is also playing a very good season and that is pretty much all I care atm.
If we had a right wing he could also ping passes out there and stretch teams.
I don't mean inconsistent as in plays badly 1 day or bad another, more like he can go from doing something stupid (like last night with the chip pass) to the sublime.
If he cut out the little drops in concentration he'd be playing at a world class level regularly.
It is impossible to know that unless he has either told you or you read his mind, and I very much doubt both scenarios have ever happened.
My agenda comment was mainly to do with the over-analysis of his errors. This utterly silly non-issue of his penalty runs is merely a by-product of the constant negativity towards him, which leads some people to be irked by every unusual or eccentric thing he does.
I won't comment on the 70% before I check for proof. As for whether the run-up helps him, I would say it does as that's the way he has taken penalties all his career. Unless you can prove that his conversion rate is average or below, then he doesn't need to change anything.
I agree with your last point, he has been playing well and even when the rest of the team has played badly. We should be mainly discussing all the great things about his play and not be distracted by such non-issues and the over-analyses of a couple of errors in a game.
He's an unbelievable player really. Best I've seen since Ronaldo at OT.
That’s fair too, although the pass was only made to look as bad as it did due to what followed. In itself, it was an accurate pass which Lookman did very well to cut out. But it wasn’t as stupid as him being caught to stepovers near his box. The pass itself was indulgent, but was going to find his teammate if not for it being cut out. If Everton did not go on to score, it would be a nothing incident.
Also, I’m sure that the same forensic analysis of Kroos, Modric or whoever will show their imperfections too.
And if you wish to see a midfielder who takes unnecessary risk on the ball, look no further than Verratti, who regularly tries to dribble on his 18 yard line and is lauded for it.
Seconded. He’s a joy to watch, and his brilliance is somewhat dampened for me every week as it’s offset with the fear that this will all be over come summer.
Then people will soon see, when he’s replaced by someone who is still not at their best every game, gives the ball away sometimes but is also nowhere near as good as him.
Bizarre insistence by some in here to completely absolve him for major errors. No player is black and white. Of course he gets lauded for the touches of genius going forward, for his growing influence on us as an attacking force. Equally, of course he gets stick for indulgent shit in poor positions that lead to goals. What centre midfielder have we ever had that has not? Ronaldo in his pomp for us got stick in here for indulgence and rightly so. Some would have Pogba in the pantheon of greats now and that's bull. He's got to keep setting the bar higher.
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