I know he doesn't rely on it but feck me he has some.
Bruno and Pogba: Beginning of a new era
- Thread starter Isotope
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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.
Shouldn't it be Bruno and Paul?
He has seemed pretty focused to me since his return, I'm thinking Bruno has a hand in this, long may it continue.
I'm not sold on the partnership, much less on Pogba. IMO we should cash out in the summer.
Replace him with who?
Truly staggering how bad we are when they're taken out of the team is the worrying thing.
I would agree with that. Think Bernardo may have a shout as well, though he plays a lot out on the wing.
Who's replacing Pogba?
Only suitable one potentially available is Thiago and I don't think he'd come here.
I don't know, the club should keep scouting. He's been here since 2016 and he's had maybe 10 truly great performances. Bruno's outshone him. I refuse to believe there's no other player out there we can bring to replace Paul Pogba.
The combo is Pogba and Matic.
But, yeah... having Bruno in front of them is fecking brilliant.
But, yeah... having Bruno in front of them is fecking brilliant.
Some of you folks are just wasting your time with this sport.
Had this on my FotMob news feed today. I can believe it, he looks really happy at the moment.
This is just saying they will trigger the one year extension built into his contract.
Hopefully with a good transfer window he will sign a long term deal.
Could you please articulate what it is about the partnership that you're not sold on?
Loved that interview. He is such a good player and person to have around.
Still a long way to go and they must show it again the best clubs (First big test should be in the Europa League) but yeah so far so good 
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This
Bingo.
Said this myself many times he was being asked to do too much. He tried desperately to carry the team and win it by himself which just wasn’t possible, he had to be 3 midfielders in one.
now he has Bruno taking the attention off him and Matic pulling his weight. We are seeing the best of pogba as he can play it simple and mix it up with runs when needed.
all this time we suffered with lingard and Pereira being phony number 10s
Not often I agree with Shaka Hislop but what he says about Pogba is spot on. He doesn't make an average team better but he makes a good team even better. So. So true.
Pogba has failed over last few years in a struggling utd team. Whenever we have a fully fit team and can play our best 11 Pogba comes alive. And now we have Bruno he looks better again.
Pogba has failed over last few years in a struggling utd team. Whenever we have a fully fit team and can play our best 11 Pogba comes alive. And now we have Bruno he looks better again.
Said similar when he was mooted to go to Madrid - however much he's been criticised he'd be a gold plated Rolls Royce in a team that suited his playstyle.
If we're going to include Matic, then we should also include Scott & Fred. Matic is just a support role not the key here. Him, Fred & Scott will play the role to support both Bruno & Pogba. And those three will be rotated depending on who we are playing against.
To be fair that is taking away from Matic's performances since the restart - he looks like the player of old since then. Let's hope all 3 of them do rotate and keep him fresh which I think has been the problem previously.
Lot of people criticised his performance because they don't know how we've been using Pogba. Pogba was asked to play 3 roles prior Maguire & Bruno arrival. Asking him to do the ball playing, deep playmaker & no 10 job at the same time and still got blamed for it. Let's just hope everyone now can appreciate him more and understand why he wanted to leave. And hopefully he can now see the potential of the squad and decide to stay.
That's not true, there is zero negative about Matic from the context. Fred & Scott have been performed good enough to be deserved in nomination to support Bruno & Pogba.
Majority people said the right things about Matic. He was criticised when he didn't perform, he was praised when he performed, the feedback were full deserved. Matic, Fred & Scott will play their role. While the key role will be dependent on Pogba & Bruno.
Yes. Me too. Pogba currently performs like a true midfielder, and honestly it looks like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders. He is such a classy player that if he can finally settle down in this role, picking his moments to be brilliant while staying consistent in his decision-making he'll be the best midfielder in the world. I'm not too worried if he doesn't sign the contract, much thanks to Bruno, but with Pogba playing like this we definitely look closer already in terms of challenging for the title. Imagine if he plays like this all next season without anything coming out of his camp about his supposed unhappiness or concerns about ambition. We could challenge. If we get Sancho and a DM on top of that, I'll definitely buy a new shirt before the season starts.
Bruno though. The man is insanely good and the weird thing is, as similar as he is to Pogba I think Bruno is good where Pogba has weaknesses and the other way around.
They are both such intelligent players combined with physical ability. And yet they have distinct strengths and perfectly compliment each other. They can both be devastating individually on their day. The body language expert in me tells me that Pogba’s completely tuned into the game. They are absolutely beautiful to watch.
Just think what these two could do if we had a forward like Owen.
We’d better get Pogba signed up again soon because if he keeps playing like this the likes of Madrid will be back snooping around. It’s a good problem to have to be fair.
Bruno looked like Lingard until Pogba came on against Norwich on Saturday
It's not mate your post is not giving him enough credit.
So we need to give credit to Matic but not for what Scott & Fred had done this season?
Sell Pogba
Wait.. wrong timing.
Wait.. wrong timing.
How dare you. You forgot Henderson
I’ve said in various threads that we should aim to finish 3rd next season, but after watching these two in tandem against Spurs, Sheffield and Brighton, I think we should aim higher.
For one, just the sheer presence of both of them makes the other players’ jobs easier. For example, people say Matic will have to be constantly busy to keep snuffing out counter-attacks as these two shouldn’t be forced to defend, but tell me that Matic’s hands were less full when playing with workmanlike players such as Fred and Pereira. The very fact that we have these two attacking the opposition means that they will have to spend so much time defending that they will be more fatigued when counter-attacking. No disrespect to them, but when Fred and Pereira (or Lingard and McTominay actually, same concept) plays, the stamina they offer over pure technical ability like Pogba and Bruno is counter-productive when playing not just teams like Brighton or Sheffield, but even Chelsea or City. This is because we then spend more time losing the ball and trying to regain it rather than actually creating goalscoring chances, like we do now before those two are rightly substituted to be rested.
In my opinion, providing we get Sancho for our right-wing to add yet another top attacker to our team, we will challenge for the title next season. Our defence is constantly slated and DDG, Shaw and Lindelof are always asked to be replaced, but the facts say that in our last 16 games, including those against Chelsea and City, we have conceded 4 goals. That is a title-winning stat if I’ve ever seen one.
For one, just the sheer presence of both of them makes the other players’ jobs easier. For example, people say Matic will have to be constantly busy to keep snuffing out counter-attacks as these two shouldn’t be forced to defend, but tell me that Matic’s hands were less full when playing with workmanlike players such as Fred and Pereira. The very fact that we have these two attacking the opposition means that they will have to spend so much time defending that they will be more fatigued when counter-attacking. No disrespect to them, but when Fred and Pereira (or Lingard and McTominay actually, same concept) plays, the stamina they offer over pure technical ability like Pogba and Bruno is counter-productive when playing not just teams like Brighton or Sheffield, but even Chelsea or City. This is because we then spend more time losing the ball and trying to regain it rather than actually creating goalscoring chances, like we do now before those two are rightly substituted to be rested.
In my opinion, providing we get Sancho for our right-wing to add yet another top attacker to our team, we will challenge for the title next season. Our defence is constantly slated and DDG, Shaw and Lindelof are always asked to be replaced, but the facts say that in our last 16 games, including those against Chelsea and City, we have conceded 4 goals. That is a title-winning stat if I’ve ever seen one.
hehehe I kept telling a lot mofos that Pogba (who wasn't blameless during many games for sure) just needed quality around him to get him to play football simpler and therefore much better.
Definitely. Imo the situation with Pogba has improved a lot after Bruno's arrival.
Pogba is already 27 so it's quite understandable that he would wish to move to a team that can win something big. I'm not a fan of his "want new challenge" but imo it's normal. He's not young anymore and of course he'd like to fight for the title or CL instead of just CL qualification.
Prior to the signing of Bruno we looked nothing sort of a team that would challenge for anything, despite going in the right path. Now we started to look a bit. I really hope Pogba would make up his mind and stay, he and Bruno are amazing.
Maybe he is happily off. We'll know in the break when agents get active and start salivating.
Hope he stays though. We need quality and consistency in the team
Doubt it.
Right now I don't think anyone can afford him.
Plus with Bruno's arrival it finally looks like we are going places. So I think he might stay at least another season to see where this ship is headed.
Ole has to get credit for this.
His willingness to use a more attacking-minded formation with a double pivot of attacking players -- instead of the double pivot of defensive/holding players is what has allowed this partnership to develop.
Plus the ability to keep players motivated and happy. There was a glint and a smile in Pogba's eyes that was absent for a long time yesterday -- nevermind having players like a Martial pressing or tracking back.
His willingness to use a more attacking-minded formation with a double pivot of attacking players -- instead of the double pivot of defensive/holding players is what has allowed this partnership to develop.
Plus the ability to keep players motivated and happy. There was a glint and a smile in Pogba's eyes that was absent for a long time yesterday -- nevermind having players like a Martial pressing or tracking back.