Are we becoming too dependent on Paul Pogba

simplyared

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Don't get me wrong of course I'm enjoying the football since Ole came. It's been fantastic! However seeing Pogba today we have some player in there and he just gets better and better. Can't think though what would happen if he was out through injury for a run of games. How can we avoid being too dependent on one player and question is have we got the back up if it should happen?
 

WR10

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Herrera, rash and martial are just as important in our set up.
 

Hound Dog

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I am the kind of person that, when things are going well, cannot help but feel things will start going wrong.

I see that I am not alone :)
 

Sandikan

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He was always the best player by a mile, it's just that Jose managed to poison people into somehow thinking he was the reason for everything going wrong (just check the thread that had loads of caf people losing their sh!T)
 

BAMSOLA

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The bigger problem is being too reliant on our current CM 3 at the moment with very little quality backup. McTominay, Fred and Pereira all need to step up when given another chance as they have failed to do on occasions this season.
 

Cardozo

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Surely you need to wait until he doesn’t play and we’re a disgrace of a team to make a thread about this?

Currently he’s just a key player in our first 11. I’m not sure how we’d play without him but I’d guess it’d be a different shape with Lingard taking an offensive role in the team.
 

Skills

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This is why I believe we need another creative force in the team, who can take up Pogba's workload and step up as the main source of creativity when he's rested.
 

Handré1990

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Yes. It happens to teams who have a player on this level. Good thing is we have a great chance (in theory) to supplement the team with players who can pick up the slack when he’s out and others who can compliment him if he has an off day (creative assist machine on the RW, maybe, as Rash and Martial are real goal threats along with Paul).

I say in theory, because it would mean a lot of investment.
 

marktan

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I think he is the most important player in our team. Take him out and there's a huge gap between midfield and attack.

It's not too dissimilar to France. When you take Pogba out of that midfield as they did against the Netherlands they just don't have anyone near as creative to link the attack.
 

RMD83

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Herrera, rash and martial are just as important in our set up.
No chance. All of them are in great form and have been very important in this 11 game run but pogba stands alone as the most important outfield player. Pogba has cemented himself as the main man post Jose.
 

Skills

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The bigger problem is being too reliant on our current CM 3 at the moment with very little quality backup. McTominay, Fred and Pereira all need to step up when given another chance as they have failed to do on occasions this season.
Tbh, the situations we've dropped them into hasn't been ideal too. I think 2/3 need to play, and just rotate the other one out with Fred, Perreira or McTominay.

Either way, none in the second set can offer what Pogba does because he's so unique. And you're never going to get a back up, that can make up for especially Pogba's quality.
 

charlenefan

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We're no more dependent on him now than we have been over the last 3 years but yes we are very reliant on him and pretty screwed if he gets injured
 

TsuWave

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Every team has their star player/talisman.

Herrera, De Gea, Rashford, Martial, Lindelof have all been performing consistently well.
 

Lemansky

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What is harder to imagine is that this guy got benched by Jose. What a shambles the last months of this tenure was.
 

RMD83

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The bigger problem is being too reliant on our current CM 3 at the moment with very little quality backup. McTominay, Fred and Pereira all need to step up when given another chance as they have failed to do on occasions this season.
This is exactly my concern. The defence can change and it can still work, same as the front 3 but so far there seems to be nobody that can justify playing in midfield outside pogba, matic and Herrera.
 

Hercules

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Pogba has been the best player in the league since Ole took over. Rashford, Martial, Herrera, Matic have been good as well. You build a team around a player and I have no worries if that player is Pogba. I was in Mou in camp till November but I was wrong.

I'm happy that we sacked him and I'm happy for the past 11 games, long it may continue.
 

Skills

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I'd say the best way to go about resting Pogba is to switch to a 4-4-2

---------------Rashford---Sanchez/Lukaku
Martial---Matic/Herrera----Fred/McTominay---Lingard

Stick another attacker up there to replace Pogba's production against the poorer teams. We give up some more control and have to play a bit differently, but in my opinion its the only way you replace some of his attacking output.

Ideally in the summer, we upgrade Lingard for a real winger/productive forward who can share the creative load so it has less of an impact.
 

Dante

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There are substitutes available for Rashford, Martial and Herrera (Lukaku, Sanchez and Fred). But there's nobody who can do Pogba's job to a remotely decent level.

Bringing in a midfielder who can play alongside and/or in place of Pogba should be a priority.
 

Santoryo

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We've just gone through a period where the likes of Martial, Rashford, Herrera, Lindelolf alongside Pogba have all shown their class yet this thread pops up as if he's the only performing player.

We aren't dependent on Pogb. He's very important for us playing well and winning games just like the same could be said about Rashford at the moment or Herrera(people were crying about his absence when we failed to beat Burnley).

Heck even Lingard has shown that he could be missed. Bottom line is were aren't dependant on 1 player. Pogba being out would certainly lead to a drop of performance just the same as of we have Herrera out. We're not solely dependant on Pogba but on our best performing players whom are like 4 or 5 right now.
 

Canagel

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Every team has their best player and it's no different here. But we have lots of other good players with confidnce so it wouldn't be disaster at all.
If he wasn't playing we would have to step up in other areas to win matches as currently PP is taking a lot of pressure of us.
If Liverpool can challenge with zero creativity in midfield we can also handle it .
 

Mick321

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A bit probably but that's team sport isn't it? There's always someone that's usually by far the best player. Applies to Messi/Barca, Salah/Liverpool etc etc
 

antsmithmk

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We should buy his brother. Then we have a ready made replacement should Paul get injured.
 

Mr Pigeon

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We're becoming too dependent in the same way that we were dependent on Cantina, RVN, Ronaldo, Rooney, van Persie, etc.
 

Santoryo

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No chance. All of them are in great form and have been very important in this 11 game run but pogba stands alone as the most important outfield player. Pogba has cemented himself as the main man post Jose.
We failed to beat Burnley with Pogba in the team and people were lamenting Herrera absence.

People are trying to overplay Pogba importance while downplaying our other key players and I don't even know why. We are dependant on our key players.

Pogba doesn't stand alone. Rashford even won the PL potm and arguably outperformed Pogba, I don't see anyone claiming we'll collapse without him in the team. We need our key players firing and rightly depending on them.

If Pogba is missing we'll obviously see a drop in performance. The same could be said about any of Rashford or Herrera. We aren't a 1 man team and some of you are trying to push this narrative for no reasons.
 

edcunited1878

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He's the most important outfield player at United. Nevermind talent, but you take PP6 out, the team is not the same. When Jose benched him, it was correct because Pogba wasn't performing well enough, however combined with Jose being Jose, it was toxic. Neither person trusted each other.

You look at City and they have KDB and Silva doing what Pogba does for United. Pogba has risen to the challenge and it's a massive credit to himself, Ole and the coaching staff.
 

edcunited1878

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And no, United aren't too dependent on Pogba. Your best players are your best players for a reason.

Pogba wants to be the man but most importantly wants the team to win. He's the central figure along with others.
 

Santoryo

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Every team has their star player/talisman.

Herrera, De Gea, Rashford, Martial, Lindelof have all been performing consistently well.
These guys are basically being discredited for the sake of creating a thread like this. Heck some could even argue that Rashford has outperformed Pogba since Oke's arrival and would point to him winning the PL potm award as proof.

I don't know why people want to pretend that our team is a 1 man team. Lose Pogba and our performances take a huge hit, same could be said about the likes of Herrera, Rashford etc.

Heck people were crying over missing Herrera against Burnley and Pogba played that game. Truth is we need all our key players, it's not about Pogba alone and this narrative about us solely depending on him has to be buried as soon as possible. It's a complete disregard to other well performing and key players in our team right now.
 

WR10

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No chance. All of them are in great form and have been very important in this 11 game run but pogba stands alone as the most important outfield player. Pogba has cemented himself as the main man post Jose.
I won’t disagree with you about him being the ‘main man’ but I think you missed the point here. Pogba thrives because of our set up. Our set up thrives because of a collective brilliance that is heavily influenced by the decision making and ability that rash, matic, martial, pogba and Herrera bring on the field. Pogba is the best of the bunch but the set up wouldn’t crumble without him.

Would you think Pogba would be as good if he had Fred and pereira behind him and Chong, lukaku and mata in front of him?

I do like that we have come to a point today where we are desperately looking for negatives though.
 

DeGea

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Yes, we are dependent on Pogba. If he us injured we will struggle. We might not lose games but certainly will draw more.

The solution?

Christian Eriksen. We should sign him.
 

Walters_19_MuFc

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We definitely need someone with the same amount of creativity of Pogba.

We can't rest him at the moment because we haven't got that player.
 

Fortitude

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No we aren't too reliant on him. He's loving his role and we have no means to cover for him if he's injured, which hasn't changed since he got here.

We need to supplement with talent in the summer as having only one player in midfield who can create is not good enough.