Haha, true. I would love to see what happens when he gets a pre-season and gets more rhythm and familiar with the rest of our players
6
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 51
- Goals
- 9
- Assists
- 6
- Yellow cards
- 10
- Status
Yup. The front 6 he's settled on recently would have been the 6 most of the caf would have chosen at the start of the season. Frustrating that it took Jose almost half a season to figure it out
Carrick is well known slow starter even under SAF's years. Perhaps Carrick didn't impress in training, who knows. Herrerra, Pogba himself also need some times to get going. Then the Rooney problem, Martial & Mkhi not in form... there is politic in play. You can't just drop Rooney, take Rashford and Lingard off and keep playing Martial and Mkhi into form while others, especially Rashford was not given the sniff given his debuts months and the exciting few minutes with England and his pre season showing.
He's an absolutely superb player when he gets space and time on the ball, which he was afforded by Palace sitting deep to stifle the three forwards. I really couldn't criticise any aspect of his performance unless I was nitpicking, which I'm not keen to do. Everything went through him today, he's the reason we won this game.
My god he's good. And he's still only 23 
Worth every penny.
Worth every penny.
This sums it up for me. Knowing the levels he can play at and does at moments in the game make him fluffing a 5 yard pass infuriating.
I noticed this aswell and it's something I love to see. Always striving to hit perfection.
He's quite amazing, his vision and technical skills, combined with being a massive tank are a rare combination. Once he works those moments where he lacks concentration out of his game he'll be ridiculous.
Be lucky to get on Spurs bench, mind.....
Be lucky to get on Spurs bench, mind.....
He's already the best central midfielder in the country. Give it a couple years and he'll be absolutely brilliant. £90m will prove to be a bit of a bargain.
Last edited:
Pure class
Baby elephant was very good, he should have had lot more assists and goals but his start to ManUtd career is very good.
The word ”young” being key here. Rio didn’t turn out too bad, did he? He’s 23, ffs. Being one of the most creative players in the league means there’ll be loss of possession, misplaced passes and wrong decisions. However without those kind of players you struggle to get late winners etc.
After a worrying start, he has done well in last few games and I'm happy about his creative play.
But hIs overall contribution still needs development, especially short passes where he regularly concedes possession.
But hIs overall contribution still needs development, especially short passes where he regularly concedes possession.
Start to his career has been worrying and poor. Good he seems to have settled and now affecting games. Still a long way to go before we see similarities with Zidane
He is going to be sensational in a few years time, an absolute beast.
One thing I would like to see him improve would be his discipline. He already has 7 yellow cards now and will soon reach 10 if he keeps playing this way and talking back at referees. That would warrant a two match ban which we can't afford.
Yup. I was thinking about this yesterday. We will mostly be playing 2 cup games in succession towards end of Jan. 2nd leg of league cup semi vs Hull and FA cup 4th round. Hope he picks his 10th vs Stoke away on 21st Jan
When you think of the great goals he has so nearly scored for us.. And the assists he has laid on a plate for other players..His potential is huge and his current level is pretty damn good.
He won't ever be a Modric but that's fine because we don't want him to be Modric, that is hopefully what Ander will be or any CM we buy going forward. Pogba is our AM/CM hybrid and that is when he is at his best.
Said it from day one - play him in a 433 and we will see him flourish but to fair to him he's been put in different formations and has done well regardless but this formation is definitely what he needs to be in his element.
Because he plays best when he is carefree and relaxed that can in turn affect his ability to track runs and make simple passes .. Concentration slips abit. Also a touch of immaturity about it.
I can't see him making the same sloppy passes in two years, as a midfielder as you get older your passing naturally just gets better and I'm very confident these errors will be eradicated and as @Pexbo said - his numbers should get better too.
Pogba has it all in his hands to be an EPL great and I am so glad we have him - gives the team much needed star dust.
He won't ever be a Modric but that's fine because we don't want him to be Modric, that is hopefully what Ander will be or any CM we buy going forward. Pogba is our AM/CM hybrid and that is when he is at his best.
Said it from day one - play him in a 433 and we will see him flourish but to fair to him he's been put in different formations and has done well regardless but this formation is definitely what he needs to be in his element.
Because he plays best when he is carefree and relaxed that can in turn affect his ability to track runs and make simple passes .. Concentration slips abit. Also a touch of immaturity about it.
I can't see him making the same sloppy passes in two years, as a midfielder as you get older your passing naturally just gets better and I'm very confident these errors will be eradicated and as @Pexbo said - his numbers should get better too.
Pogba has it all in his hands to be an EPL great and I am so glad we have him - gives the team much needed star dust.
Tweet
— Twitter API (@user) date
To me it seems like he was frustrated with himself more than anything. You can see that quite a lot actually, which is funny considering he’s playing great. But he seems as frustrated as some fans with the bad decisions and misplaced passes. Demands a lot of himself, too much at times, I’d say. At 23 he should just express himself, shouldn’t need to feel like he’s a key player. That he is though.
Immature stuff.
Superb display and starting to show his true potential.
No. He was superb on his debut and after that judged very harshly whenever he didn't score or made assists. There wasn't anything worrying except lack of patience by few caftards.
I noticed that too. Reminds me of Ronaldo. Pissed me off at the time but hindsight taught me it was mainly down to his incredibly high standards and will to win. I reckon it's the same thing with Pogba.
Good stuff. A lower pass completion rate - 82%. But he is also playing further forward, mostly looking to create opportunities, so I feel that its okay.
Having Pogba on your team means that the opposition have to allocate one player to man mark him, else they cede control of the midfield. Palace didn't do that, and preferred to focus on defending deep against the forwards instead.
He doesnt fluff as many passes as people make it out. Its usually an understandaning thing. Like yesterday he was on the ball, Rooney just turned around and started running forward without a care about whats going on Pogba returned the ball to him and Palace nicked it. Now that looks like a Pogba shit pass, when really if Rooney was aware he would have collected the pass.
He still passes more than anyone else in the team, creates more than anyone else too. I see why Jose really wanted him now.
He still passes more than anyone else in the team, creates more than anyone else too. I see why Jose really wanted him now.
Agree with that to a certain extent alright. His passing accuracy may not always be amazing either, but that's mainly due to the fact that he is going to try more defence splitting passes, etc, than others that play it much safer.
I am still not sold on the saying that he is the best midfielder in the country. Certainly Coutinho was the best CAM/AM in the country before he got injured.
Pogba has been hit and miss throughout the season and same can be said about him last night. Sometimes a brilliant pass to the forwards( like the one he played to Zlatan/ Rooney/Mata), then makes couple of sloppy passes to teammates(like the one he played to Carrick/Herrera) to give away the possession in the midfield. He sometimes looks very casual on the ball and tries for the glory/killer ball instead of a simple ball to the wide players that can construct a good attack. He shoots unnecessarily from 30/35 yards 4-5 times in a game.Undoubtedly, he will rack up the assists and goals as he has that moment of brilliance factor within himself.
I would like him to be more consistent than all this fancy midfielder. he has to show more maturity and consistency in passing and dribbling. Then only he will be world class like Kroos or Iniesta. Fortunately for him, time is in his side.
Pogba has been hit and miss throughout the season and same can be said about him last night. Sometimes a brilliant pass to the forwards( like the one he played to Zlatan/ Rooney/Mata), then makes couple of sloppy passes to teammates(like the one he played to Carrick/Herrera) to give away the possession in the midfield. He sometimes looks very casual on the ball and tries for the glory/killer ball instead of a simple ball to the wide players that can construct a good attack. He shoots unnecessarily from 30/35 yards 4-5 times in a game.Undoubtedly, he will rack up the assists and goals as he has that moment of brilliance factor within himself.
I would like him to be more consistent than all this fancy midfielder. he has to show more maturity and consistency in passing and dribbling. Then only he will be world class like Kroos or Iniesta. Fortunately for him, time is in his side.
Look at the full picture.
In 18 league games this season:
3 goals
2 assists
24% shooting accuracy
8% crossing accuracy
70% tackle success
https://www.premierleague.com/players/3920/Paul-Pogba/stats
Don't let yourself be blinded by clever tweets.
100% tackles? I thought his game was to be the creative force.
6 heading duels won? Really? As part of the attacking 3 that contributes to being MOTM?
4 take ons? Again as part of an attacking 3 surely there should be more?
1 goal that was offside.
1 assist? Ibra did the hard work.
Nobody mentioning McArthur was his man for the goal?
Clearly he is a major talent, but the fawning over him is ridiculous. Almost as bad as the Dele Alli bandwagon, but that's another story.
Really? That's surprising. He seems such a laid back dude.
Tbf in every game he seems to fluff a few really straightforward passes. But we can live with that when he has the vision and technique we saw with the chances created last night.
and the combined football pundit and media industry
Still, Who am I to let facts get in the way of fanboy-ism?Im as delighted as the next United fan that he had a good game last night, but the over reaction from last night is quite something. I'll wait til he delivers 5 consecutive performances and a MoM in a cup semi final before I'll claim he is the real deal.
The front 3 was Mata/Rooney/Zlatan. Pogba was in the middle 3, and whilst advanced, had more duties tracking back. He sole duty wan't just being the "creative force". The bit in bold is a bit of a joke tbh.
Also excludes his exquisite pass to Rooney a few yards from goal, forcing a fantastic save.
The stats in that tweet are selective but nowhere near as biased as your post.
Pogba is twice the size of Cabaye so any movement he makes should floor poor Yohan and the pass was about 12 degrees out leaving Zlatan with a lot of work to do, or something.Was a great pass to Zlatan wasn't it. Must admit I've taken to Pogba.
The stats in that tweet are selective but nowhere near as biased as your post.
But they still make a objective point that he has been poor vs expectations and has a long way to go to reach his top point, let alone deliver constantly against that standard.
The stats in that tweet are selective but nowhere near as biased as your post.
Sometimes when he loses possession it's because he tried a stupid, needless flick or the likes. But yeah, he will most likely grow out of that in time and he's capable of some brilliant defence splitting passes. I thought his performance last night was fantastic.
I have seen him play in all our matches and have discussed with others who have done the same. There is no bandwagon. It's rather unfortunate that some people are too rigid to change their views. He is a matchwinner. Over the past many weeks, he has been the primary creative force who has created enough for our attackers to put away and turn those draws into wins. His allround game is quite good and I don't need stats to back that up. It's perfectly fine to expect more and call him out for his petulance which is costing him cards or some simple mistakes which he shouldn't be doing considering how good he is. But, he is also one of the few who tries and hence the mistakes. Just go back and look at all our matches where we have played well, most of them have Pogba as a central figure in those performances. He is frustrating only because we expect him to do magic everytime partly because of his talent and partly because of the price tag + hype.
And by whoscored's metrics statistically he is the best midfielder in the Premier League this season. These are ratings from OPTA stats.
https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/2/England-Premier-League
Scroll to the bottom of the page and select the seasonal team.
He scores so highly on there as no other midfielder has such a complete set of attributes as Pogba. He has a few too many bad passes etc but he offers so much beyond that, that those shortcomings become mitigated.
- Status