No cover for CM.
Pogba is not a left winger
- Thread starter noodlehair
- Start date
I can explain. He wasn’t moved back to accommodate Dan James. Does that help?
Putting in centre midfield seemed a super obvious thing without McTom being available, and Matic being so off the pace.
But now it doesn't feel quite so wise.
But now it doesn't feel quite so wise.
I don't think it was to accommodate James, Ole clearly has no intention of playing Van de Beek so it was either Pogba or Matic with Fred and he went with Pogba.
He does have a 40m signing warming the bench.
You have to take the hit somewhere. Playing VDB in midfield might seem like a risk but is that any worse than having an ineffective Dan James hampering our attack?
I could understand it if Pogba played the midfield role consistently well, but we know he's liable to lose the ball in dangerous positions and display poor defensive work and surprise surprise we seen both of those things today. That's why we ended up trying him on the left in the first place.
Don't have to tell me, but it's quite obvious Ole doesn't fancy DVB in a midfield two, if at all.
I was also expecting better but Wolves did very well in midfield and Bruno should have helped too in a game like this to keep control. Second half was much better, probably due to WOlves being a bit knackered pressing. Newcastle doesn't play like that along with some other teams so it could still work for us in certain games. It's just this arrival of certain Ronaldo and Rashford, with Sancho pricetag and talent getting into form in the coming weeks which will make us inevitably use Pogba in midfield.
Pogba does great from the left side - but it's an area of the pitch we're well stocked in as plenty of the modern 'inverted strikers' are fond of cutting in from the left onto their stronger right foot.
Where we are clearly short of top quality options is in CM. Pogba has always been a CM - and a world class one at that - so it should make sense he plays there for us. However, we're yet to find a way of playing him there with a suitable partner while also accommodating the equally top quality Fernandes as the AM.
And that's where the problem of Fred and McTominay only looking good when they pair each other, and not anyone else, including Pogba, comes in.
Unless we bring in a DM in the last few days of the window who works well beside Pogba, then it does look like our best CM partnership will again be McFred, and Pogba competing with all the other quality options for the starting spot on the left. Which leaves us top heavy and maybe difficult to keep all the attacking options happy (depending on how many remain by the end of the window).
Where we are clearly short of top quality options is in CM. Pogba has always been a CM - and a world class one at that - so it should make sense he plays there for us. However, we're yet to find a way of playing him there with a suitable partner while also accommodating the equally top quality Fernandes as the AM.
And that's where the problem of Fred and McTominay only looking good when they pair each other, and not anyone else, including Pogba, comes in.
Unless we bring in a DM in the last few days of the window who works well beside Pogba, then it does look like our best CM partnership will again be McFred, and Pogba competing with all the other quality options for the starting spot on the left. Which leaves us top heavy and maybe difficult to keep all the attacking options happy (depending on how many remain by the end of the window).
Ole
You're right, he's not.
But with out stock of wingers, which is impressive, how many incisive runs, either taking on opponents, or moving behind them do we do in every game?
Our wingers seem to want to have the ball at their feet, and both Shaw and AWB rarely overlap and try to break into the opposition too.
We are so indirect when attacking, that 8/10 of our goal scoring chances come from creativity sparks from out midfielders, mainly Pogba or Bruno hitting a magic ball.
As long as we play like that, we're not really sacrificing anything from using Pogba as a left winger.
But with out stock of wingers, which is impressive, how many incisive runs, either taking on opponents, or moving behind them do we do in every game?
Our wingers seem to want to have the ball at their feet, and both Shaw and AWB rarely overlap and try to break into the opposition too.
We are so indirect when attacking, that 8/10 of our goal scoring chances come from creativity sparks from out midfielders, mainly Pogba or Bruno hitting a magic ball.
As long as we play like that, we're not really sacrificing anything from using Pogba as a left winger.
5 assists in his first 2 games from the left wing and Ole decides to change that. Ugh. Just give VdB a chance. Please. I beg of you Ole. And play Sancho on the right. Did we really just pay that much money only to put him in the position that we have a ton of players in already?
Based on his performances in the last 5 yrs at United.
Coming in from the left is his best position.
Coming in from the left is his best position.
Are we going to keep pretending he is great on the left or are people going to realise he is good there only when we play shite teams?
Totally agree that Pogba should be let go if he cant be trusted in central midfield. The problem is he will be out of contract soon so the club is trying to re-sign him so Ole is forced to give him game time.
Has to go, need a change in culture with him. Doesn't bring it regularly and no way we pay him 400k. That is stupidity at its finest and we will long regret it. You pay 400k to Haaland if he keeps scoring for fun, Mbappe or Messi, Plus Ronnie only.
It’s a massive conundrum with him, he almost has to play, but unbalances the team with him on the left and we’ve seen it doesn’t work with him in the middle.
Started the season really well, and in flashes was brilliant yesterday but too inconsistent and sloppy.
If he wanted to sign a contract you’d have to go with it because of his value in the market but wouldn’t be a bad thing him leaving at the end of the season, even on a free.
Started the season really well, and in flashes was brilliant yesterday but too inconsistent and sloppy.
If he wanted to sign a contract you’d have to go with it because of his value in the market but wouldn’t be a bad thing him leaving at the end of the season, even on a free.
he gave the ball away or lost possession 21 times yesterday more than any other player on the pitch.....i still can't understand how some of you guys feel like he's a vital piece to the starting XI
he completely unbalances the starting XI as he's not a left winger
he completely unbalances the starting XI as he's not a left winger
I think you’re underestimating what 400k gets you these days. Haaland, Mbappe and Messi will cost you double that.
There's no way we'll pay Pogba more than what Ronaldo is taking.
He was rubbish yesterday. Just one of the most infuriating players. Because he's amazing, and then you get games like that.
Yes, adding Messi was the wrong thing to do.
I see Kylan is already on a bit over 400k now per week but Haaland is on 170k. To think a few of ours are on more, Martial is on 250k and Mata just less than Haaland at 150k. Is Pogba at these types of talent levels of Ronnie, Messi, Neymar and in the future Haaland, no way. The DeGea 375k at the time was stupid and made sure he would never be sold in the future.Fred gets slaughtered if he loses the ball twice in a game. Bizarre how fans jump on certain individuals constantly. Pogba had maybe 10 minutes in the Villa game where he looked up for it, otherwise he was pretty much a meh performance, may have well have took him off and tried Sancho or Martial. Can’t wait for Marcus to be back to be honest. Then Ole needs to address his team selections and get the best out of his team.
It's going to get better when Rashford is fit and we're still playing Pogba on the left and shoving Rashford on the right at the expense of Greenwood.
I think Ole will be sacked if he doesn't drop Pogba for the big games tbh. But then again the way Fred and McTominay have started the season I'd probably just play Pogba in there anyway at this point.
We’ll in that case he pretty much can’t play anywhere, where next, false 9.
I said it after the first game when much of the cafe overreacted, he’s a luxury player and the quicker Rashford is back the better.
I believe Ole is under extreme pressure to play Pogba regardless of how he plays as I’m sure the club would want him to sign a contract renewal, at this point in happy to let him leave for free if he’s after anything more than his current salary as he’s just not worth it.
I said it after the first game when much of the cafe overreacted, he’s a luxury player and the quicker Rashford is back the better.
I believe Ole is under extreme pressure to play Pogba regardless of how he plays as I’m sure the club would want him to sign a contract renewal, at this point in happy to let him leave for free if he’s after anything more than his current salary as he’s just not worth it.
It’s problematic isn’t it. He can’t play double pivot role in 4231, so left wing is the way to go. But he doesn’t have the same goalscoring threat as Rashford there.
Still think his best position is CM in 433 though, when he is partnering with 2 disciplined midfielders. But we can’t possibly play 433 with Bruno there.
Still think his best position is CM in 433 though, when he is partnering with 2 disciplined midfielders. But we can’t possibly play 433 with Bruno there.
Pogba is Pogba. He's too inconsistent in whatever position you play him in.
Exactly. And he’s not a central midfielder as well. He’s an attacking midfielder but he’s not as good as Bruno there so he’s really just a headache for us at this point.
You just knew he won’t keep up his good performances from the first few games of the season. He never does. Consistency has always been his issue.
When will Ole just go 433 with Bruno and Pogba as the two 8’s?
Is not this. Is not that. I have no idea what he is! Can someone explain to me what he is?
It all boils down to the same problem we worried about after we bought Bruno, they can't play together. Bruno needs us to play in a 4-2-3-1. Pogba needs to play in the middle of the pitch in a 4-3-3. Whichever formation you choose, one of them is a square peg in a round hole.
On paper, if Pogba plays on the left then he can get involved in midfield by drifting in, sort of making it a 4-3-3. I thought that could work, but in practice, it doesn't seem to work consistently. No matter how good it may be in theory, that's all that matters.
But playing him in the double pivot is flawed too, or at least in any game where the opposition contests the midfield. I think its fine for games where the opposition just sit back, like Newcastle did, but if they either try and control the midfield, as the top teams do, or they just selectively press our midfield, as Wolves and Southampton did, Pogba struggles.
On paper, if Pogba plays on the left then he can get involved in midfield by drifting in, sort of making it a 4-3-3. I thought that could work, but in practice, it doesn't seem to work consistently. No matter how good it may be in theory, that's all that matters.
But playing him in the double pivot is flawed too, or at least in any game where the opposition contests the midfield. I think its fine for games where the opposition just sit back, like Newcastle did, but if they either try and control the midfield, as the top teams do, or they just selectively press our midfield, as Wolves and Southampton did, Pogba struggles.
Says who?
He could play a 3...
Just my observation based on his time at United. He's certainly not playing in the front line of a 4-3-3. He could probably play in midfield, but he's never played that role for us and if you look at his strengths - assists and goalscoring - playing him in midfield proper isn't going to get the most from that.
I think the better explnataion is both Pogba and Bruno need to be partnered with two supporting, defensively sound players. So that's why we can't play both of them at the same time in 4-3-3 and also why Pogba was moved to the wing.
He plays on the left because he's too open in the middle I think. Still reckon he's better just as a central midfielder though. The balance goes down the pan when you stick him left.
So you cannot play him deep, not centrally, not as an attacking midfielder and he isnt consistent and hardworking enough to be on the left.
I just don´t get what he is then?
I just don´t get what he is then?
He's definitely fine in centre or attacking mid, he just needs different players around him than we can offer.
You can play him as an attacking midfielder, but it means losing Bruno from that position. I think you can play Bruno and Pogba in midfield in 433 and still keep Bruno's output, but I don't see how we have a good enough CM to play with them in order to keep the balance. So the headache continues. To me, a diamond could work, but it sacrifices a lot of our winger talent.
Because he's phenomenal playing as a 10. I barely knew who he was before Ole played him there. Actually, I've watched some games where he played deeper for Portugal a few years back and he went unnoticed.
The numbers speak for themselves. Master move by Ole.
I have doubts whether Pogba is class even in his LCM position in a 3 man midfield in the EPL, but he sure as shit can't play in a 2. He's capable of the occasional brilliant game (Leeds, 2nd half Milan last year), but he doesn't have the output to play on the left.
For the money he's demanding he's not going to be squad player. He should be benched when Rashy gets backed and then let go at the end of the year.