Weird how people say Pogba hasn't fit us. He's been one of our most productive players since he arrived, how doesn't he fit any system?
You have to correct these things early on here, or it just becomes a fact that he’s only played well in the spell after Ole arrived. That may we’ll have been the best he has played, but now people are acting as if anything less than that level is shite. He has regularly been our best player on the pitch, even when not scoring 2 goals a game. Even last season, he started in good form, and had excellent games in particular against Everton and Newcastle before Ole’s arrival. He then got injured for a month, and had his 3 poorest games of the season when he returned, and was dropped. That was it.
In the season before, he was again very good early in the season, and he then got injured again (if anyone recalls constant press conferences where Jose kept saying he ‘didn’t want to make excuses for our form’, and then when Pogba returned, he said ‘I can speak about it now because he is fit, but when you lose a player like that who is so important etc’) the issue is, he’s always about 3 poor games from screwing the narrative for the entire season, and that’s partly because nobody else steps up and wins us those games when he’s not been on it. Salah has had his share of dips in the last two seasons, but it hasn’t been blown into a massive issue. He comes back into form when he comes back into form, and his teammates do the job in the meantime.
Pogba has had his share of poor games, but apart from a handful of the world’s best, I think he’s been the best player on the pitch, and at least on his team, for his fair share. What makes his form after Ole came in so noticeable is that it coincided with us winning loads of games. Him playing well doesn’t count for as much when we don’t. He has had some really bad games for us, at times in quick succession, but this notion that he’s been terrible for 3 years is a joke.
As always, if anyone cares to look at the facts, I invite people to read back through the post match team and individual threads to refresh yourselves. The bad games were there, but most of them were good. Good performances (for everyone, not just Pogba) count a lot less when a team isn’t winning though. Unless you are a striker, as nobody can take your goals away from you.
He’s been voted player of the tournament in the Europa League and in PL team of the season since he’s been here. He’s been nowhere near as bad as made out. But he can’t be Keane, Xavi and Ronaldinho in one as people demand.
He has little excuse to perform now though, as most of the other jobs in midfield are actually being done by others, and the strikers are generally doing theirs. He just needs to do his now, and there will be little excuse if he doesn’t.