Ole playing Pogba as a DLP is sheer idiocy

[Classical Mechanic]

Why is this actually happening, what is the thinking behind it?

I'm all for giving Ole chance to prove himself this season but this is a egregious error. He's pretty poor in this position as it exposes all his weaknesses and his best position is in an area of the pitch where we are seriously lacking Pogba's outstanding attributes.

 

[LInkash]

Seems like because he does it for France but problem is we don't have a Kante.

 

[flappyjay]

Because everyone else can't pass from deep so even if you play Pogba as a 10 he will still come deep to collect the ball as Matic and Mctominay will be passing from side to side then to the cb's. Mourinho has tried it and that was the end result. That's why he tried Pogba in a midfield 2 and 3 from the left

 

[youngrell]

We can’t have it all. At the moment, if Pogba plays as the 10 then it means Matic starting every game again and it seems like nobody wants that.

Until Fred is up to speed I imagine he’ll continue to play deeper.

 

[ottosec]

Because he's the only one in our midfield that can actually pass the ball.

 

[rotherham_red]

The alternative is Matic... I agree that it's shit but the alternative is probably even worse.

If we had bought in just one midfielder this would never have been an issue

 

[Class of 63]

Maybe Ole the wily old fox was hoping that by playing him there he'd hand in a transfer request, there really isn't any other explanation.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

The alternative is Matic... I agree that it's shit but the alternative is probably even worse.

If we had bought in just one midfielder this would never have been an issue

The alternatives are Matic, Fred and Garner. Matic is bad but he looks after the ball far better than Pogba in that crucial position and does transition the ball through midfield fairly well.

 

[roonster09]

Few believe these are just excuses for Pogba but I really believe Ole is making the same mistake as others like Jose. Only difference is we are defending as a team, so we don't have to rely on Pogba tracking runs most times but we are not using his attacking talent to good level.

We are playing non contributing players as a #10 and a player who is very good passer from deep and in final third in deeper position. We should have addressed this in transfer window, at least from the squad it's better to play Fred as midfielder who is mobile, can win possession and also can spread the play. Pogba played his best when he was part of 4-3-3 with him bombing forward all the time. Then Ole changed the set up to drop him deeper to control the game but it didn't produce the results he wanted.

IMO our best set up with McT and Fred in midfield, Pogba as 10. Also in Jan, most important signing is one more CM who can pass the ball longer than 5-10 yards.

 

[ReallyUSA]

Well 2 points out of three games should mean we look to alternates. Ole needs to drop this.

 

[Godfather]

Because everyone else can't pass from deep so even if you play Pogba as a 10 he will still come deep to collect the ball as Matic and Mctominay will be passing from side to side then to the cb's. Mourinho has tried it and that was the end result. That's why he tried Pogba in a midfield 2 and 3 from the left

Das ist ein Bingo.

 

[Strelok]

Agreed with OP, the 4231 is only good for counter attacking and only if Pogba stop losing the ball so often as recently.
IMHO Ole should go 433 with Mc Tom as a holding and let Pogba play in his favourite position - left CM. This of course won't work against top 6 but should be enough for the likes of Palace and Sou.

 

[cyberman]

He has played in every possible position for us, it'll come to the stage that his defenders will have to start looking at the player rather than whats around him.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Because everyone else can't pass from deep so even if you play Pogba as a 10 he will still come deep to collect the ball as Matic and Mctominay will be passing from side to side then to the cb's. Mourinho has tried it and that was the end result. That's why he tried Pogba in a midfield 2 and 3 from the left

Maguire can pass through the lines and has done fairly well so far, it was partly what he was bought for. He has actually created as many 'big chances' as Pogba this season with 1 each.

 

[Tarrou]

I think its wrong too

We have Pogba and McTominnay both playing in roles they are not suited too.

This is a direct consequence of not purchasing a midfielder in the window. A DM should have been a high priority.

 

[JJ12]

Because we need 2 Pogba's.

Nobody is good enough to play deep with McTominay.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

He has played in every possible position for us, it'll come to the stage that his defenders will have to start looking at the player rather than whats around him.

I have been highly critical of Pogba, when he joined I was totally buzzing and a massive fan but, as it transpires, he comes with so many bad points along with his good points. That said, DLP is by far his worst position.

 

[cyberman]

Because everyone else can't pass from deep so even if you play Pogba as a 10 he will still come deep to collect the ball as Matic and Mctominay will be passing from side to side then to the cb's. Mourinho has tried it and that was the end result. That's why he tried Pogba in a midfield 2 and 3 from the left

We don't have to pass from deep though. What passers to Liverpool have? They win the ball quickly and get it to the forwards as quickly as possible. I have no clue why we are obsessed with total football played out from the back.

 

[norm87cro]

Just what we need. Another Pogba excuse thread. Aldo I do partially agree that he is too deep he should nevertheless influence games more.

 

[Classical Mechanic]

Just what we need. Another Pogba excuse thread. Aldo I do partially agree that he is too deep he should nevertheless influence games more.

Look at my recent posting history on Pogba, there's no way I'm making excuses for him. It's pretty obvious, to me anyway, that his worst role is this one, however.

 

[NJM78]

Why is this actually happening, what is the thinking behind it?

I'm all for giving Ole chance to prove himself this season but this is a egregious error. He's pretty poor in this position as it exposes all his weaknesses and his best position is in an area of the pitch where we are seriously lacking Pogba's outstanding attributes.

It makes no sense to me either and during our run of 8 wins Pogba played mostly advanced (if I'm not mistaken) but then we did also have Herrera who without sounding like a broken record, we let go and did not replace.
You could see against Southampton that once he moved up he played Rashford through twice with passes Mata and definitely Lingard would rarely produce. Yes he will makes mistakes with the ball and lose it often but higher up his unforced errors are less common as he has more space and time.

Matic is half the player he was but I would still play him with McTominay and Pogba in front. Preferably Fred and McT behind Pogba long term though.

Lingard can do one and I wasn't as impressed as a lot on here were by Mata, he has moments but his assist and goal input has decreased dramatically over the past two seasons and the fact he is super slow and weaker than a kittens fart means he should be a bench option only.

It's going to be comical in midfield when Pogba misses games through injury.

 

[rotherham_red]

The alternatives are Matic, Fred and Garner. Matic is bad but he looks after the ball far better than Pogba in that crucial position and does transition the ball through midfield fairly well.

The problem is that he's so prone to being overran that he's an even bigger liability than Pogba. Also the fact that he takes 3-4 touches when one or two would suffice every time is another massive issue with him. Plus the fact that every ball is the safe, cowardly sideways pass, means that while he may take more care on the ball, it's pretty much redundant because he doesn't progress the play.

Pogba, while not particularly great in that role, is at least forward thinking and when it comes off it's great. Granted when it doesn't, it's very frustrating.

Like I said, a midfielder was an absolute must and yet Ed didn't even put in the effort to land one.

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

What is DLP?

 

[kkengvib]

What is DLP?

Deep Lying Playmaker

 

[charlenefan]

Why is this actually happening, what is the thinking behind it?

I'm all for giving Ole chance to prove himself this season but this is a egregious error. He's pretty poor in this position as it exposes all his weaknesses and his best position is in an area of the pitch where we are seriously lacking Pogba's outstanding attributes.

It's not rocket science, it's designed to get Pogba on the ball and have everything go through him

When Pogba plays in an advanced position the game passes him by, you end up having someone like Matic dictating play instead and then Pogba isn't intelligent enough to find space so someone like Matic quite often can't even feed the ball into him in advanced areas. When it does work we look threatening but it doesn't happen enough

 

[finneh]

It seems we have the natural heir to the aging Rooney. If he's playing centre forward of course he's performing poorly because he's a natural number 10. If he's playing number 10 of course he's playing poorly because these days he's a better central midfielder. If he's in midfield of course he's playing poorly because he's a striker.

I'd love the same protection in my job. I'd be sending emails to the wrong person, disrespecting customers and mismanaging staff; whilst the CEO says "of course he can't write an email coherently, his natural talent is speaking to customers", then when I lost an important customer because I was disrespectful "of course he's useless when dealing with customers, he's naturally a production guy".

Play him in a midfield two "he lacks protection", play him in a midfield three on the left "he's not advanced enough", play him as a number 10 "he's not able to pick the ball up from deep to ping a pass or drive through midfield".

Truthfully he's been here for over three years and the only thing consistent about Pogba is his absolute inconsistency. He will be poor 65-75% of the time irrespective of his position because that's just him as a player. The things he regularly tries to attempt on a football pitch inherently have a low success rate so it's obvious that a great performance would be far more of a rarity than a poor one.

 

[Havak]

What is DLP?

Deep Lying Playmaker is what I first assumed.

We're playing him there because no one else we play from deep can really pass the ball. Matic's legs are gone and McTominay isn't really capable of finding those long balls or longer through balls it seems. We need Pogba to control the game from this area or we'll probably get even more overrun in midfield than we already are. What we need to do is stop playing a no.10 entirely IMO. But Pogba should not be a no.10 either, he should still play a similar role in a midfield three, but be tasked with less defensive duty and be asked to run forward more.

I don't think Paul is good at just staying in the opponent's half for most of the game, he needs to join the attack from deeper and be harder to pick up.

That's my thoughts on him anyway, I think Fred is going to be important as he's the only player with the attributes in our squad to compliment the midfield of himself, McTominay and Pogba. But, we've yet to see it in a United shirt. A lot is resting on him now to step up his game.

 

[ArjenIsM3]

Because we lack quality and quantity in midfield. The alternative is playing a 4-3-3 with Matic and McT, but nobody wants to see Matic start anymore. Fred apparently isn't up to speed yet and Woody didn't give Ole the midfielder he wanted so we've no option but to play 4-2-3-1 with a #10. Unless we play Garner, who's unproven at this level. We could player Garner-McTominay-Pogba but that's a very inexperienced midfield in an already inexperienced side.

 

[12OunceEpilogue]

Just what we need. Another Pogba excuse thread. Aldo I do partially agree that he is too deep he should nevertheless influence games more.

That's the thing isn't it, while he could beyond doubt be doing better there's no escaping the fact we are short in midfield and wherever we plug Pogba in we're going to be deficient in quality elsewhere. In many ways Ole is damned either way, sacrifices and compromises have to be made when you go into a season with an unfinished squad, but the OP's point is not to make an excuse for Pogba but that this is the worst you could do with the tools we have at our disposal. Personally I'm torn; without a properly up to speed Fred it'll be Scott and Matic, which looks awful to be honest, but Pogba in a midfield two without a Kante-level b2b player alongside him doesn't seem to work either.

 

[12OunceEpilogue]

What is DLP?

Distinct Lack of Penalties (scored)

 

[nainaisson]

We can’t have it all. At the moment, if Pogba plays as the 10 then it means Matic starting every game again and it seems like nobody wants that.

Until Fred is up to speed I imagine he’ll continue to play deeper.

I would rather Matic have come on at the end of the Crystal Palace game than Mata. Then maybe we wouldn't have conceded that embarrassing goal at the end, which Mata in central midfield couldn't do anything about due to his tiny dwarf legs. Matic has slowed down a bit, but he isn't as completely useless as portrayed in this forum.

 

[FootyGirl88]

I hate the 4231, you need a VERY good #10 and DM for it to work. We just don't have the personel for it.

 

[ArjenIsM3]

I hate the 4231, you need a VERY good #10 and DM for it to work. We just don't have the personel for it.

We can't really pull off a 4-3-3 with this squad either

 

[FootyGirl88]

We can't really pull off a 4-3-3 with this squad either

Hmm you can get away with two box to box midfielders McTominay and Fred plus and one attacking midfielder Pogba.

 

[Eric7C]

Hmm you can get away with two box to box midfielders McTominay and Fred plus and one attacking midfielder Pogba.

I agree. The best period for United under Ole came when Pogba was playing as a left-sided attacking midfielder making quick one-two passes with Martial and Rashford. With James on the left now (hopefully), Pogba's effectiveness as an attacking force further up the field would only become more incisive. Ole has to be bring Fred back into the starting eleven.

 

[Jerome Holland]

Matic i agree is not one of our best but Matic, Fred and Pogba further forward is our only option now. Sure Pogba will come deep to collect the ball time and again but i would prefer he be in a position where he is allowed to lose the ball in certain instances, i know this sounds daft but the best players in the world play with risk because with risk comes rewards. I would prefer more protection in front of the back four rather.

 

[Ludens the Red]

We don't have to pass from deep though. What passers to Liverpool have? They win the ball quickly and get it to the forwards as quickly as possible. I have no clue why we are obsessed with total football played out from the back.

Exactly, it’s weird how everything gets overly complicated with United and Pogba.

 

[Wednesday at Stoke]

Seems like because he does it for France but problem is we don't have a Kante.

McT is doing his role quite well, the problem is further upfront where there is no creative player like Griezmann.

 

[ArjenIsM3]

Hmm you can get away with two box to box midfielders McTominay and Fred plus and one attacking midfielder Pogba.

Maybe, but it seems Fred isn't up to speed yet. How about this.

De Gea
AWB-Tuanzebe-Lindelof-Maguire-Young
Lingard-McTominay-Pogba-James
Rashford

5-4-1 with three CB's that are all comfortable on the ball.

 

[Class of 63]

What is DLP?

Deep lying piano-carrier