I thought Bruno and Pogba alternating positions in the second part of last season was quite effective. Dont seem to be seeing much of that recently which is abit of a shame as it gave us some unpredictability.
6
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 42
- Goals
- 6
- Assists
- 6
- Yellow cards
- 9
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
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He can, just not with our current setup of 2 DM's.
Very good again, our best player
He should have stayed in the attacking role . Created two chances by himself in 30 minutes from LW while the 4 attackers in front of him did nothing in the rest of the 60 minutes
He should have stayed in the attacking role . Created two chances by himself in 30 minutes from LW while the 4 attackers in front of him did nothing in the rest of the 60 minutes
That's what I mean. He cannot be that player if he plays like last night.
I think this guy is the key for us to play like we did against Southampton. Does anybody think he's playing within himself. He needs to connect himself with the front more often and running with the ball will only open up space for the rest. We need one of the two in midfield to pass forward and run with the ball more than they are doing. That can be difference between us being 1.0 up at half time to 2 or 3.
Hear me out. I think we move the ball quicker without pogba in midfield. Against Southampton we moved the ball extremely quick and efficiently even though they had a red card. Even Maguire who loves to dwell on the ball moved it forward and quickly so many times. Now with pogba in midfield I don’t think this collective play from our midfield would have been possible. Fred and mctominay were very simple in their roles and left all the trickery to our forward players which made it very easy for us to crush Southampton.
I think we need to a permanently move pogba somewhere other than central midfield for the rest of the season. Rashford already has the left wing locked so I’m not sure where pogba should move too.
I think we need to a permanently move pogba somewhere other than central midfield for the rest of the season. Rashford already has the left wing locked so I’m not sure where pogba should move too.
He’s been here for 5 years and hasn’t shown any desire to keep it simple yet you think he is the key to playing against Southampton who like to press and punish mistakes in midfield which pogba makes a lot????
Well deserved....sadly not even in the 8 man shortlist for prem player of the month. Some of our players have to REALLY earn a shot at that award
Man Utd 3:3 Everton
No Pogba, no fun. Yea, we can dominate possession but he is the real brain of this team and the only one who can calmly hold the ball at his feet.
Hope it's not a serious injury
Hope it's not a serious injury
The thing is, people often complain that he doesn’t pass quickly enough. In central midfield, calmness is just as important as haste, and I feel we have more control when he’s in there on the ball. We can pick better passes, and not all of them need to go forward immediately. We lost a level of control and quality when he went off for sure, hopefully not out for long.
His injury came at the worst possible time. He was starting to make us tick so well in midfield, I feel like if he hadn't gotten injured we would have won this comfortably. Also, he's quite good from set pieces defensively...
Very annoying injury to have when's on great form. Hopefully it doesn't take long. We really, really need him at the moment.
Hope it’s nothing serious, looks like he maybe pulled his thigh?
We miss him when he doesn’t play. Him and McTominay needs to be our midfield.
We miss him when he doesn’t play. Him and McTominay needs to be our midfield.
Thought he played some decent simple football up until his injury. Shame about that, this might have been his last shot to really grow into an effective midfielder role for us. Hopefully it wasn't anything real bad but if it is a lengthy recovery, we might as well prepare to live without him until the summer as he usually have huge dips in form after any type of injury or time out from football and we can't really afford to introduce an out of form Pogba into the side in a title race.
I was curious to see what spin you would put on your ‘get well soon’ message, wasn’t disappointed!
And FTR, last time he was injured for very long he came back in very good form, from the very first game. Even when he had a failed comeback against Watford 6 months earlier, he was out MOTM despite only playing the last 20 mins.
In his second season I think, he was out for a month and came back in very good form too, scoring and assisting in his comeback game against Newcastle even. Unsure where you have pulled that assessment from at all.
He’ll be gone one day, don’t worry!
Huh? It's not a spin though is it, we just have different perspectives on him, obviously. I said I was sad he went off because he finally has started to look like a consistent midfielder. Hopefully the injury wont stop him but he hasn't been very good for a long time before this run of form so if it's now a serious injury you can't ignore whats likely to happen after that. You might believe he'll sign an improved 6 year contract and be played as a 10 or winger or whatever and be great forever and I wont tell you that you spin it weirdly, it's just your opinion.
Not his biggest fan, far from it but wish the lad a speedy recovery.
Watching the game tonight, I felt for players like Bruno and Cavani having to have endured this result despite being brilliant on the night. It made me think of Pogba playing with some of the worst players at the club over the last 30 years before to the last 12 months. Small wonder he got lowered to their standard. Playing with better players also raises the game of others.
I have no idea whether he’ll sign. By spin, I meant an obvious conundrum of wishing a player well, while obviously having to maintain your usual level of scepticism or clarity that you don’t rate the player, in general. Reads like the famous ‘I’m not his biggest fan, far from it, but I’m sorry he got Covid’ post! It was one part sympathy, two parts ‘maintaining balance’, then feint praise, again balanced because you clearly find it difficult to make an unfiltered positive comment about the player. That’s what I mean by the spin. By all means, there is a time to post about the negative, and when it doesn’t apply, there is a time to post sympathy, or post positive. Negativity doesn’t have to be added to every sympathy or positive to dilute. It’s okay.
As for the rest of your post, it again seems a bit made up to me. Like ‘he hasn’t been good for a long time before this run of form’. He hadn’t been good for about 4 games at the start of the season. After returning from injury last season, he was mostly very good, other than about 3 games too. Your assessment of what is ‘likely to happen’ when he returns also seems made up. You stated that ‘we all know’ he goes through huge dips in form after any long layoff. Which isn’t true. Even his biggest critics would not say he went through a huge dip in form upon his return from his last injury layoffs, which makes me wonder why you would make such a statement at all.
Was basically one of those ones.
Was running the show before the injury.
Really hope it was precautionary.
Ok then. That's funny though, the guy was very see through so I'm glad I'm in good company if it's so obvious. I've been nothing but complementary towards Pogba lately because I haven't been bothered about anything, just been football with him which is what I want. Still, that's hilarious.Very see through indeed. Which is why I thought I’d point out that it is okay to simply wish him well, or say he played well or whatever, if that is the case. Or don’t, if you don’t want to, of course, that’s cool too!
If a player plays well, and it feels a little awkward to you as you’ve kind of committed to not liking the player or preferring a performance worthy of criticism instead - that’s okay, you don’t have to give struggle praise so that the Internet guys see you as ‘fair and objective’. It doesn’t matter that much, you can even be quietly bitter if he plays well and scored the goal that puts us top etc. That’s fine. I’m just saying the attempts to mask it are quite transparent!
As long as it's not the hamstring. Pray to the gods.
We noticeably lost some control in possession once he was off, as neither Fred nor McT possesses the same class on the ball and spraying passes all over the pitch.
Fingers crossed it isn't serious
Fingers crossed it isn't serious
Stop trying to police the thread then. If it's cool - then you don't worry about itVery see through indeed. Which is why I thought I’d point out that it is okay to simply wish him well, or say he played well or whatever, if that is the case. Or don’t, if you don’t want to, of course, that’s cool too!
If a player plays well, and it feels a little awkward to you as you’ve kind of committed to not liking the player or preferring a performance worthy of criticism instead - that’s okay, you don’t have to give struggle praise so that the Internet guys see you as ‘fair and objective’. It doesn’t matter that much, you can even be quietly bitter if he plays well and scored the goal that puts us top etc. That’s fine. I’m just saying the attempts to mask it are quite transparent!
Obviously everything is ok but you're seemingly really not comfortable with my ambiguity and want to box my opinions into something you can wrap your head around. If you disagree then that's fine but whats with the gibberish mate. My post about Pogba being injured wasn't even meant to be controversial, only for some reason it bothered you. I'm not bitter towards Pogba, because I'm probably a bigger fan of his potential than you, I got very high expectations of him so I'm not bitter about him. However I'm quite resentful towards all the assumptions you make, and they are all over the place. Stop it.Glad this crap has been called out already
People love throwing around the word agenda in here, look. no further than this guy & Pogba for its definition.
He was dictating the tempo beautifully and keeping his position really well, such a shame he's likely going to be out for a few weeks.
Last goal was conceded because of a lost defensive header ...
The issue isn’t that he rushes it or doesn’t rush it though. The issue is he takes 5 touches when two could do and teams find it easy to get set. He’s far from the only culprit, but it did noticeably sneak back in today when his recent better form has largely come about as a result of him keeping things simpler.
I'm far from an Ole outer, but the first thing I think a new manager would do (providing they aren't a dinosaur like Mourinho) is work on how quickly we get the ball into our forward players and Pogba, like most of the others, could do a damn sight better on that front.
Why are you offended though? Is it because I said 'simple football' and you misunderstood? That is a compliment, it's exactly what he has been missing in his game for years. I've been waiting to see exactly that from him! It's more of the Scholes element when he plays like that, however it's not very often he can do it. It's a shame about his injury because I think he has finally gotten close to becoming the consistent midfielder I've always wanted to see. He has never been this close since maybe his first season here. He has even been pretty sharp defensively, and in his pressing.Glad this crap has been called out already
People love throwing around the word agenda in here, look. no further than this guy & Pogba for its definition.
I then go into the speculative area of assessing if this injury will put a stop to his form and if so, we might as well not play him much to risk getting in trouble like earlier in the season when he was out of breath, lack of pace and strength and kept losing the ball and giving away penalties left right and center. We can't afford that player to potentially ruin the title race for us. You can't see it, that's not on me. if Pogba would be playing like he has been last 10 games or so with only a couple of small slips, I would want him to sign on a life time contract so I'm good with that.
We all know is a nice misquote
Silly boy. I don't think Pogba has been very good, not at all after not getting to play many games to get himself going. He is a physical players that needs to get his body and mind into form by playing games and the man has said so himself. I don't think we can afford to run the risk of putting a lacklustre Pogba into a title challenging team. That's not weird thing to say, it's actually very relevant. I would say that about any player who usually makes weird things out of nothing like handballs and stupid tackles. So, that's why I'm hoping the injury isn't anything serious because I don't want to see that guy, but rather the guy who has been playing very well right up until now. No matter if he signs on or not, all I care about is this season for now. As I said, it's just a normal opinion I think many share so stop fabricating quotes.Any word on injury ?
When that chance fell to Fred and he hit it weaker than a glass of squash that's 52 parts water and 1 part squash, I wish that Pogba would have been there the place it into the corner.
Oh man exactly my thoughts. He would of been there too which is the mad part.
Okay, you didn’t say ‘we all know.’ You just stated it as fact that any time he has a long layoff, he suffers a huge dip in form upon his return, but didn’t add ‘we all know’. Which is, well, untrue anyway. Of course though, you can simply say it is your opinion, so we’ll never get anywhere. If you feel his form against Spurs, Sheffield Utd, Brighton, Bournemouth and Villa last season was a huge dip in form, then agreed - we all have our opinions.We all know is a nice misquote
And I do accept this is a pointless debate. The internet is like that. Of course, you had worded your initial post well enough to claim people are being dramatic and you were really just trying to say simple is good and as you will stick to that, there’s no point. I’m going to assume you are old enough to know a backhanded compliment when you see or use one, but the beauty of them, especially online, is that we can claim ‘what, I was saying something nice’ if ever called on it. So my bad for misinterpreting your post in that case, which was clearly one of praise for performance and concern for injury. I could have easily ignored it tbh, so it’s my fault for even starting this. It just made me smirk how it was constructed (all unwittingly of course) and just as you initially have your two cents, I couldn’t help give mine.
I'm afraid it wasn't. He was clearly signaling to the bench that he was injured and went off limping
To make the things worse I do not recall there was any tackle on him, and those kinds of injuries when a player stretches a muscle or suddenly feels a pain can be pretty serious. I wish I were wrong, but I do not expect him to come back for at least a month. Huge blow for us especially after losing two points
I'm very skeptical on this being a title-challenging team to begin with, but if it is to be one, it's going to be with Pogba on the field IMO. Obviously it depends on what type of injury he's picked up, but if it's a pulled muscle and just a matter of a few weeks, then you should absolutely put Pogba back on the team ASAP and get him back in game-shape. If you're limiting Pogba to someone who 'usually makes weird things out of nothing like handballs and stupid tackles' and use that as the reason he should be sat on the sideline so as to not disrupt this title-challenging team, don't be surprised people think you're being unfair about what type of attributes Pogba brings to the team. And with such a flawed thinking of the player, it's pretty normal you're going to get some people to disagree with you and question your objectivity on the player. Without Pogba's direct contribution this season, this team never would have reached first place at any point so far.We all know is a nice misquote
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