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2020-21 Performances


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Adam-Utd

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I dunno. Look at the 1-2 Rashford played to set up Shaw’s shot vs Villa. Or the way Rashford picks out Shaw’s overlapping runs when he plays LW (did a nice reverse pass to put AWB through in the first half of that game too.

Rashford’s definitely got issues around decision-making and running down blind alleys but I don’t see a big difference between him and Pogba in how well they link up with Shaw.
Yeah Rashford on the odd occasion can play a nice pass for the overlap, but he doesn't do it enough/often makes the wrong decision around the box.

I meant more outside the build in the build up anyway, there was a lovely part in the 2nd half where Pogba and Shaw danced around them with quick passes, was great to see.

I do enjoy a good counter attack but it's nice to see we have the ability to play quick 1 touch passing also.
 

MinGin

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He is on the left wing position is much better than one of the 2 CM
He has a tons of tools in midfield position, but he needs to care 4 sounded direction and it will cause him lost the ball in that area often, and it will be in danger for us.
But when he is on the left wing, he only needs to care 3 sounded direction which this situation will magnify his skill of ball holding.
So, i think it is time to give up some of his skills like long passing, and train up more skill for aggressive side.
 

Pogue Mahone

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Yeah Rashford on the odd occasion can play a nice pass for the overlap, but he doesn't do it enough/often makes the wrong decision around the box.

I meant more outside the build in the build up anyway, there was a lovely part in the 2nd half where Pogba and Shaw danced around them with quick passes, was great to see.

I do enjoy a good counter attack but it's nice to see we have the ability to play quick 1 touch passing also.
Ok, yeah. I see what you mean now. When Shaw’s cutting infield doing his Philip Lahm impression his passing triangles with Pogba are lovely to watch.
 

Adam-Utd

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Ok, yeah. I see what you mean now. When Shaw’s cutting infield doing his Philip Lahm impression his passing triangles with Pogba are lovely to watch.
Yep, he's genuinely one of if not our best player on the ball, he rarely ever loses it in possession. I bet Pep is a huge fan.
 
Man Utd 2:4 Liverpool

Amar__

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Has he ever played well against Liverpool? I seem to recall one game, but I am not sure. He is mostly one of the worst players against them, tonight was just bellow average, not the worst but far from best either.
 

charlenefan

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Has he ever played well against Liverpool? I seem to recall one game, but I am not sure. He is mostly one of the worst players against them, tonight was just bellow average, not the worst but far from best either.
His best game against them was by far the cup tie when we beat them earlier this season when he played CM

Had a mare tonight
 

kundalini

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Totally at fault for their 2nd goal. Gave away a foul in order to give Bruno time to recover from his injury then made a terrible attempt at preventing Firmino from scoring. A fierce left foot shot that went well wide and a header wide from Fernandes' cross after a corner. Failed to create much for our other forwards. One moment of good defending early on but perhaps struggled as the match progressed.
 

Gavinb33

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Against the crazy press he doesn't pass the ball quick enough and he is always a trigger for the pressing team to press up on him, I think he genuinely thinks he can beat the press on his own and loses the ball a lot because of this
 

Devil may care

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Started brightly but once Liverpool started overrunning us in midfield he faded, the switch to the double pivot didn't suit him but he was able to get on the ball a bit more but he was struggling to get back.
 

The Oracle

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Against Liverpool he performs poorly more often than he performs well.

I mean let's be honest, the only thing that turn's up against Liverpool with him is a new bleached hair style.
 

hubbuh

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Bad game, but it was an odd game in which we had nothing riding on it. Silly to give him a rough ride. He's instrumental to this team moving forward.
 

amolbhatia50k

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Has he ever played well against Liverpool? I seem to recall one game, but I am not sure. He is mostly one of the worst players against them, tonight was just bellow average, not the worst but far from best either.
For all his technically ability , Pogba doesn't deal with the press and a lack of space well. So it's not surprising that Liverpool are able to get to him.
 

Infordin

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For all his technically ability , Pogba doesn't deal with the press and a lack of space well. So it's not surprising that Liverpool are able to get to him.
Pogba’s dribbling ability is quite weird.

He’s quite good at moving the ball forward when he’s facing the opponent’s goal. He’s especially dangerous in situations where he is galloping forward with space ahead of him.

However, when he receives the ball with his back to goal, he often looks clumsy when trying to shield it and is easily dispossessed. He doesn’t have the same skillset of a Xavi or Verratti to keep his composure in those situations.
 

Bobski

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Watching it again, his defending for the Firmino goal just before ht is deplorable, switches off entirely, simple run, simple ball, nowhere near him. Easy, far too easy.
 

Eddy_JukeZ

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Watching it again, his defending for the Firmino goal just before ht is deplorable, switches off entirely, simple run, simple ball, nowhere near him. Easy, far too easy.
Typical Pogba vs Liverpool. He always has a mare vs them.

I was shocked he played well in the FA Cup vs them.
 

Annihilate Now!

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Totally at fault for their 2nd goal. Gave away a foul in order to give Bruno time to recover from his injury then made a terrible attempt at preventing Firmino from scoring. A fierce left foot shot that went well wide and a header wide from Fernandes' cross after a corner. Failed to create much for our other forwards. One moment of good defending early on but perhaps struggled as the match progressed.
This annoyed me no end... Like, generally I don't mind when people give clumsy free kicks away because it can happen... but Pogba intentionally gave away a free kick in a dangerous position because Bruno was injured? Why?!
 

Sylar

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Pogba’s dribbling ability is quite weird.

He’s quite good at moving the ball forward when he’s facing the opponent’s goal. He’s especially dangerous in situations where he is galloping forward with space ahead of him.

However, when he receives the ball with his back to goal, he often looks clumsy when trying to shield it and is easily dispossessed. He doesn’t have the same skillset of a Xavi or Verratti to keep his composure in those situations.
Yeah im in agreement with this with regards to how weird it is. He normally gets swarmed and gives up possession with his back to goal. But going forward it almost seems like players bounce of him.
 

Born2Lose

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He and Rashford are a luxury in games like last night where Liverpool had eleven players pressing.
 

Rozay

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Ole needs to decide long term what he wants to do with him. The team isn’t set up to his strengths, and if that’s the case, he should look at alternatives. Said a number of times but, if Ole had designs on building a team with Pogba at the centre of it, he should have never bought Bruno. He’d have been dar better served targeting a Saúl or Barella to replace one of the other two midfielders. As it stands, he purchased Bruno, but he can’t have it all. Only one of them work in a midfield 3 for me, at least on a consistent basis. He should let Pogba go of he wishes to continue with the current set up. It works at times, because good footballers will make things work, but it isn’t extracting the maximum out of your players. We should not be in a scenario where we feel the need to play McTominay and Fred to balance us. The problem is that we are trying to regularly get Bruno and Pogba into one team, and it isn’t the best way long term. Pogba can fo a good job on the left, as he’s creative and better in build up than Rashford - but so is Sancho, who is much more a natural winger/forward than Pogba.
 

The Oracle

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He never turns up against Liverpool in the league.

Think of the penalty he gave away at Old Trafford against them.

Think of his glaring miss at Anfield this season... when it was easier to score than hit the keeper.

Think of his performance last night - gave away a needless freekick and then lost Firminho which gave Liverpool the lead right on half-time.

He always turns up with a crazy new hairstyle against Liverpool though (last night was bleach-blonde); and it's as clear as day now the peroxide is affecting his brain in these matches.
 

Rozay

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He never turns up against Liverpool in the league.

Think of the penalty he gave away at Old Trafford against them.

Think of his glaring miss at Anfield this season... when it was easier to score than hit the keeper.

Think of his performance last night - gave away a needless freekick and then lost Firminho which gave Liverpool the lead right on half-time.

He always turns up with a crazy new hairstyle against Liverpool though (last night was bleach-blonde); and it's as clear as day now the peroxide is affecting his brain in these matches.
He was amongst our best players in our two previous games against them to be fair, but agreed, he doesn’t do his best work against them. They are a very good team. Players won’t do well against teams like that, only teams can do well against them. They are good enough and drilled enough to stop a ‘player’ - you won’t get away with having the odd quality player. That is where coaching standards become most relevant.

I can’t think of any of our players who regularly play well against Liverpool. We have players who occasionally score against them, of course, but as a unit, they are better than us and have been for a while. Our individual quality will not impose itself on them. Pogba has tried. Bruno has tried. Messi has tried. Mbappé has tried. If a team is not good enough against Liverpool, they will get found out. Even if they are a good team, it isn’t enough. You need to be very good. Our collective shortcomings were exposed last night, and often are against them. The only time we collectively excel against them is when we play defensively. But progressively, I don’t think we are quite good enough as a unit for them to not pick us off. As a team, we are not, and for many years have not been, more than the sum of our parts. Liverpool are about 20-30% better than the sum of their parts. And the parts are not dissimilar in quality in the first place, so we will always struggle, rubbish Liverpool of the last few months aside.
 

krentz

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Theoretically speaking do we still need Pogba if we sign Sancho this summer? Don't get me wrong this isnt a knee jerk reaction after liverpool's game nor me not rating Pogba. Paul is a world class, his ability to bring the ball forward is second to none in our team, problem is his best position happens to be Rashford's best position too. Rashford with all his limitations is still a 15-20 goals per season player. No manager would be foolish enough to sideline player with that kind of contribution. BUT Rashford struggles to play without space, hes quite limited when opposition didnt afford him space to exploit, and in my opinion this is the reason why we struggle to score goal against low block opposition. Pogba FIXED that problem. His close control of the ball and his passing skill in the tight area broke the low block team. Jadon Sancho could provide us that same kind of service with another point plus which is that he could play in different positions (Right Wing) and completed our front 3. What do you think?
 

Matt851

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I do wonder whether pogba would be worth the enormous contract we would need to give him for him to stay

In terms of our first 11, i would prefer a fully fit rashford on the left and don't think he will ever fit into a properly balanced midfield alongside bruno

Also i do fear his performances might decline again once its signed
 

NicolaSacco

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I do wonder whether pogba would be worth the enormous contract we would need to give him for him to stay

In terms of our first 11, i would prefer a fully fit rashford on the left and don't think he will ever fit into a properly balanced midfield alongside bruno

Also i do fear his performances might decline again once its signed
The problem is it’s not the cost of the contract, it’s the cost of the transfer fee and wages needed to replace him, which will certainly be higher. And your current ownership seem he’ll bent on protecting their assets. Which makes sense on one level but not on another.
 

jesperjaap

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I do wonder whether pogba would be worth the enormous contract we would need to give him for him to stay

In terms of our first 11, i would prefer a fully fit rashford on the left and don't think he will ever fit into a properly balanced midfield alongside bruno

Also i do fear his performances might decline again once its signed
Personally no we shouldnt give him a new contract, he hasnt doen anything to justify such an enormous wage that we would have to pay him.

Looking at the current set up if he stays. He either plays on the left where he is good....but then it seems we try and accomodate Rashford on the left or up front, which isnt working so is that us moving forward as a side? Or we play him in the pivot where he really hasnt excelled consitently and is often very poor in our own third of the pitch. That is what is happening at the moment and that is what I see us doing if he stays, which doesnt justify the contact or move us forward.

Only two justifiable reasons for him to stay for me.

1) Squad strength - We play him OR Rashford on the left and dont accomodate the other. Pogba only plays otherwise in the Fernandes position if Fernandes needs a rest, is injured or out of form

2) We change the formation, one player in the pivot and Pogba in front with Fernandes playing deeper.....but again I dont see why we should adjust our side to build around one player.

Whether preferring Rashford on the left or not is another thing I wouldnt 100% agree with....but if we dont, we will probably still try to play him, which is counter productive. For me, for what we need to improve our first eleven, as talented as Pogba is and as good as he has been recently, the problems above and the cost of the contract versus the potential transfer fee and type of player or players that could purchase is better long term for our side cashin gin on him than keeping him
 

jesperjaap

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The problem is it’s not the cost of the contract, it’s the cost of the transfer fee and wages needed to replace him, which will certainly be higher. And your current ownership seem he’ll bent on protecting their assets. Which makes sense on one level but not on another.
I dont agree, a four year contract of £500k a week if true is £100m, a figure of even 3/4 of that is £75m and Pogba would surely sell in a worst case scenario of £65m+ - That is a difference over 4years of £140m as a probably worst case scenario.

I think the most important factor though forgetting the money is replacing him. Of course there are not that many players with his ability, but we are not replacing that, we are replacing a player that has been here five years and his performances has divided opinion. A lot of those opinions are that he isnt consistently good in a double pivot, I agree with this and feel performance wise there are a lot of players who dont have his ability that would be more effective for us playing there. Another opinion is his best position is playing on the left, which appears the case recently. We dont have to replace Pogba there, we already have Rashford whether or not he is as good is a different debate....but this is why for the teams sake that huge amount of money is far better spent on the right players for the right positions than keeping a hugely talented player, if not our most talented, even though he has been playign well recently
 

Mcking

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I think we should make a decision and back it. If we are going to stick to this 4-2-3-1 with two identical centre midfielders and Bruno at attacking midfield, then I think we could do a lot better.

I have doubts about him being a long term option in centre midfield with the way we play, and he is obviously going to have the occasional good games on the left thanks to his individual quality as a footballer, but ultimately, he is not a left-winger and should not be considered a long-term option for that role.

We need to get back to Rashford playing consistently in his best position. Not a good idea to be moving around the best product we've had in a while for the sake of a square peg in a round hole.

I rate him as a footballer but we should find midfielders and wingers who would be much better fits for our preferred formation without it looking lopsided or like something is missing, and if it means selling him, then so be it.
 

NicolaSacco

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I dont agree, a four year contract of £500k a week if true is £100m, a figure of even 3/4 of that is £75m and Pogba would surely sell in a worst case scenario of £65m+ - That is a difference over 4years of £140m as a probably worst case scenario.

I think the most important factor though forgetting the money is replacing him. Of course there are not that many players with his ability, but we are not replacing that, we are replacing a player that has been here five years and his performances has divided opinion. A lot of those opinions are that he isnt consistently good in a double pivot, I agree with this and feel performance wise there are a lot of players who dont have his ability that would be more effective for us playing there. Another opinion is his best position is playing on the left, which appears the case recently. We dont have to replace Pogba there, we already have Rashford whether or not he is as good is a different debate....but this is why for the teams sake that huge amount of money is far better spent on the right players for the right positions than keeping a hugely talented player, if not our most talented, even though he has been playign well recently
Yes I take your point. I guess I’m thinking what kind of fee you’d get for him if he only has a year left on his contract, and what kind of fee you’d need to pay to buy an equally talented replacement. I take your point about the rationale of where he’d actually play. You seem to me to be crying out for an upgrade in central midfield. The weird thing is Pogba *should* be able to fill that slightly deeper central role. He’s got the physical ability and skill set, it just never seems to really work. And as you say, 5 years now: if it was going to work it surely would have.
 

jamesjimmybyrondean

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He actually isn't hard to replace. His current position in the team either on the left where one of our best players shines there. Or at the double pivot where his abilities are watered down and he even becomes a liability at times. So at that double pivot he is easy to replace. And if we were to play him on the left, I doubt many will complain if we replaced him with Sancho and Rashford who both excel there.
 

jesperjaap

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Yes I take your point. I guess I’m thinking what kind of fee you’d get for him if he only has a year left on his contract, and what kind of fee you’d need to pay to buy an equally talented replacement. I take your point about the rationale of where he’d actually play. You seem to me to be crying out for an upgrade in central midfield. The weird thing is Pogba *should* be able to fill that slightly deeper central role. He’s got the physical ability and skill set, it just never seems to really work. And as you say, 5 years now: if it was going to work it surely would have.
I just think playing there, too often he will do something sloppy in his own third with the ball, fail to track a runner etc etc. I dont think he is awful there like many suggest. I just think he doesnt excel there consitently, but more improtantly the errors he makes when he plays there are often big ones in the wrong areas
 

BULB

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Stop calling this guy world class. World class players are consistent.

Are we really going to make this guy like the third(?) highest paid player in the world? Absolute madness.

We should be doing a trade with Varane, with them throwing in a bit extra on top.
 
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