Paul Pogba appreciation thread

[Okey]

Is he the best dribbler of the squad? I think so in my view. Though he has stopped making tackles and interceptions like he used to do.

And stopped putting his foot properly through long range shots like he used to do at Juve. Almost always side foots them now. Would appear injuries have done something to his confidence/ability with hitting the ball.

 

[Ali Dia]

I flip flop on him so often, right now Im in the Really need to keep him camp. He was majestic on sunday, and has been very good this calendar year, Long may it continue

Me too. I don’t think he’s been PL record transfer good for quite some time apart from tantalising spells either side of long injuries. Injuries have definitely messed him up. I’d really like to see him fit for most of a season again though and take it from there. We could just keep playing him on the left for now and give Rashford the few weeks off if it is a rest issue.

 

[Swedish_Plumber]

This season has come down to fine margins. We’ve lost the same amount of games as City, but have drawn 4 more. The ‘what ifs’ have come down to the most trivial details now.

I’d argue that if Axel Tuanzebe never stepped on to a PL pitch for us this season, we’d be right in the title race. That’s how fine the lines have been.

To narrow down our inconsistency and lay the blame on a young player still learning is ridiculous. There have been mistakes from so many players this season and city have been ridiculously consistent.
Always amazes me the lengths some will go to just to find a scapegoat.

 

[Rozay]

Me too. I don’t think he’s been PL record transfer good for quite some time apart from tantalising spells either side of long injuries. Injuries have definitely messed him up. I’d really like to see him fit for most of a season again though and take it from there. We could just keep playing him on the left for now and give Rashford the few weeks off if it is a rest issue.

I think the rest/fatigue issue is one people keep making for Rashford personally. He’s just going through it and developing still. He has bad habits, but he’s young.

He had 2 weeks off during the recent international break, but has been the same player since he came back. The hope is that he polishes his game as he grows, which I suspect he will.

 

[Craig Ward]

While you are ‘waiting for years for him to come good’, you have seemingly completely missed the ‘fact’ that he has. Or is he playing poorly or something?

Fact - glimpses of brilliance dont make a quality player.

Consistent performances week in week out do.

Pogba is not a consistent player. He's not reliable in central midfield for us, because of the reasons i've outlined.

Pogba's odd moments of skilful play seem to cloud people's judgement into thinking he is an all round top quality performer. he's not.

 

[Dante]

Is he the best dribbler of the squad? I think so in my view. Though he has stopped making tackles and interceptions like he used to do.

Martial is still better. Probably Shaw as well.

 

[Rozay]

To narrow down our inconsistency and lay the blame on a young player still learning is ridiculous. There have been mistakes from so many players this season and city have been ridiculously consistent.
Always amazes me the lengths some will go to just to find a scapegoat.

No disrespect but, did you? Nobody has put our inconsistency down to one player, and even if I did - whether that player happened to be young and learning has no relevance at all as to whether they were culpable for lost points or not.

I said that margins and details are fine. Small things could have altered our course this season, given we will possibly finish just a few points off first. Not every stroke of bad luck from Axel has been ‘his fault’, but so what? How does that change the mathematics? It’s still a circumstance where a couple if freak/random incidents not occurring could have changed everything. It isn’t the only version of events either, other trivial details with other players can be presented, because that is what happens when you come second by a few points as opposed to 30 points. You can look at small incidents and say if they didn’t happen, the season changes.

The sad reality is that Axel diverted an off target equaliser into his own net against Leicester, and played a big part in a last minute equaliser against Everton. I’m not even going to bring his unfortunate involvement into Sheffield United’s winner into it - but I feel I can say that if these incidents alone didn’t happen, we’d be in a race. And given he hasn’t really balanced any if that with positive, point winning contributions - I think we’d be better off in terms of points if he never played.

I can pick a Cavani and say that if he had taken this chance, or if Pogba had scored against Liverpool - but over the course of a season, they have also won points, so it’s swings and roundabouts there. Sadly, I would say Axel’s involvement from an individual perspective has cost us points this season. Nobody is saying he should be shot because of it, but nobody should be saying these things didn’t happen either. It is what it is.

 

[UnofficialDevil]

For me he is our best player just needs to be used correctly , Ill be very sad to see him leave if he does.

 

[Rozay]

Fact - glimpses of brilliance dont make a quality player.

Consistent performances week in week out do.

Pogba is not a consistent player. He's not reliable in central midfield for us, because of the reasons i've outlined.

Pogba's odd moments of skilful play seem to cloud people's judgement into thinking he is an all round top quality performer. he's not.

Fact - your assessment of his season as ‘glimpses of brilliance’ doesn’t make it the reality. Dan James has had ‘glimpses’. Pogba has had a good season.

 

[Eugenius]

Fact - glimpses of brilliance dont make a quality player.

Consistent performances week in week out do.

Pogba is not a consistent player. He's not reliable in central midfield for us, because of the reasons i've outlined.

Pogba's odd moments of skilful play seem to cloud people's judgement into thinking he is an all round top quality performer. he's not.

I think he's been consistently good when he's not been playing in the double pivot position for us.

 

[Rozay]

Martial is still better. Probably Shaw as well.

Shaw is a stretch. Full backs go past players (usually forward players) all day long. I can’t see Shaw doing it in a crowded midfield. Martial possibly though. Rashford too perhaps, he goes past players quite easily, just often tries to go past one too many.

 

[RUCK4444]

Fact - glimpses of brilliance dont make a quality player.

Consistent performances week in week out do.

Pogba is not a consistent player. He's not reliable in central midfield for us, because of the reasons i've outlined.

Pogba's odd moments of skilful play seem to cloud people's judgement into thinking he is an all round top quality performer. he's not.

Disagree. He was pivotal in our push to first position and we dipped massively the moment he was injured, we have improved again since his return.

The more quality the team around him gets the more people I feel are starting to appreciate just how good he can be for us.

Outstanding ability, not a player who will win you games single handedly every week but a player who gets into any squad in Europe and it’s on us to get the best from him, just like it is with any player - we’ve largely done exactly that this season.

 

[Craig Ward]

Fact - your assessment of his season as ‘glimpses of brilliance’ doesn’t make it the reality. Dan James has had ‘glimpses’. Pogba has had a good season.

So has Dan James

 

[Craig Ward]

I think he's been consistently good when he's not been playing in the double pivot position for us.

But he DOES play in the double pivot for us the majority of the time.

So he is NOT consistent at the position we need him in

 

[Rozay]

But he DOES play in the double pivot for us the majority of the time.

So he is NOT consistent at the position we need him in

But he has been this season.

 

[Stacks]

This season has come down to fine margins. We’ve lost the same amount of games as City, but have drawn 4 more. The ‘what ifs’ have come down to the most trivial details now.

I’d argue that if Axel Tuanzebe never stepped on to a PL pitch for us this season, we’d be right in the title race. That’s how fine the lines have been.

True but also that run at the beginning of 2021 dropping points vs lower teams in winnable games and those 0-0s and boring matches

 

[spiriticon]

I would say this is Pogba's best season for us. Whether he is genuinely making the effort for our benefit, or just to put himself on the market a bit more, I don't know.

But either way I'm looking forward to the saga ending soon with either him renewing or being sold.

 

[meamth]

I think when he is fit and firing, he got injured often. Masking the fact that in his time with United during Ole's tenure, he is the best player here.

Time and time again when we're getting the results and he is performing well, he got injured. For me, the inconsistencies mentioned here is when he is playing to get back to his best.

 

[Swedish_Plumber]

No disrespect but, did you? Nobody has put our inconsistency down to one player, and even if I did - whether that player happened to be young and learning has no relevance at all as to whether they were culpable for lost points or not.

I said that margins and details are fine. Small things could have altered our course this season, given we will possibly finish just a few points off first. Not every stroke of bad luck from Axel has been ‘his fault’, but so what? How does that change the mathematics? It’s still a circumstance where a couple if freak/random incidents not occurring could have changed everything. It isn’t the only version of events either, other trivial details with other players can be presented, because that is what happens when you come second by a few points as opposed to 30 points. You can look at small incidents and say if they didn’t happen, the season changes.

The sad reality is that Axel diverted an off target equaliser into his own net against Leicester, and played a big part in a last minute equaliser against Everton. I’m not even going to bring his unfortunate involvement into Sheffield United’s winner into it - but I feel I can say that if these incidents alone didn’t happen, we’d be in a race. And given he hasn’t really balanced any if that with positive, point winning contributions - I think we’d be better off in terms of points if he never played.

I can pick a Cavani and say that if he had taken this chance, or if Pogba had scored against Liverpool - but over the course of a season, they have also won points, so it’s swings and roundabouts there. Sadly, I would say Axel’s involvement from an individual perspective has cost us points this season. Nobody is saying he should be shot because of it, but nobody should be saying these things didn’t happen either. It is what it is.

No disrespect but, did you? Nobody has put our inconsistency down to one player, and even if I did - whether that player happened to be young and learning has no relevance at all as to whether they were culpable for lost points or not.

I said that margins and details are fine. Small things could have altered our course this season, given we will possibly finish just a few points off first. Not every stroke of bad luck from Axel has been ‘his fault’, but so what? How does that change the mathematics? It’s still a circumstance where a couple if freak/random incidents not occurring could have changed everything. It isn’t the only version of events either, other trivial details with other players can be presented, because that is what happens when you come second by a few points as opposed to 30 points. You can look at small incidents and say if they didn’t happen, the season changes.

The sad reality is that Axel diverted an off target equaliser into his own net against Leicester, and played a big part in a last minute equaliser against Everton. I’m not even going to bring his unfortunate involvement into Sheffield United’s winner into it - but I feel I can say that if these incidents alone didn’t happen, we’d be in a race. And given he hasn’t really balanced any if that with positive, point winning contributions - I think we’d be better off in terms of points if he never played.

I can pick a Cavani and say that if he had taken this chance, or if Pogba had scored against Liverpool - but over the course of a season, they have also won points, so it’s swings and roundabouts there. Sadly, I would say Axel’s involvement from an individual perspective has cost us points this season. Nobody is saying he should be shot because of it, but nobody should be saying these things didn’t happen either. It is what it is.

No disrespect taken.
You’ve talked about nobody blaming a single player yet you did. Yes you can be culpable for dropped points at any age, that is very simple to understand.
However you’ve gone out of your way to single out a guy who, by your own admission in the post I’m replying to, isn’t the only one you could lay blame on for not being as close to city as we may have been.
In a thread about Paul Pogba and his impact on our season, you’ve decided to argue that Axel is why we are behind city. That’s what the original post I replied to singled out.
Like you’ve said, there are far more senior players you’d expect better of in many more moments than Axel has been involved with for it to really be the reason why we’re behind.
He didn’t cause the poor start to the season, nor our run of draws earlier this year - it’s a team effort. So to single him out and say “if he hadn’t been on the pitch at all we’d be in a title race” is ludicrous.

 

[passing-wind]

But he DOES play in the double pivot for us the majority of the time.

So he is NOT consistent at the position we need him in

Pogba has had a good season irrespective of where he's been deployed objectively. The only "inconsistencies" has been due to his lack of availability prior to injurues. Just because he shows weakness in certain elements of his position doesn't discredit the value he offers as a player. Maguire can't run fast, gets caught in the transition when the team plays a high line, struggles often against mobile players but this doesn't deflate his influence in the defence he's still a fundamental player to the team.

If the interest in Rice is genuine it could see us revert to the 4-3-3 which was the backbone of Ole's winning run with Matic, Herrera and Pogba. One of the biggest questions is what the managers intentions are with the midfield in the long run.

 

[Rozay]

No disrespect taken.
You’ve talked about nobody blaming a single player yet you did. Yes you can be culpable for dropped points at any age, that is very simple to understand.
However you’ve gone out of your way to single out a guy who, by your own admission in the post I’m replying to, isn’t the only one you could lay blame on for not being as close to city as we may have been.
In a thread about Paul Pogba and his impact on our season, you’ve decided to argue that Axel is why we are behind city. That’s what the original post I replied to singled out.
Like you’ve said, there are far more senior players you’d expect better of in many more moments than Axel has been involved with for it to really be the reason why we’re behind.
He didn’t cause the poor start to the season, nor our run of draws earlier this year - it’s a team effort. So to single him out and say “if he hadn’t been on the pitch at all we’d be in a title race” is ludicrous.

The truth is sometimes harsh. If we had a 6 year old in goal, we may lose as a result. It may be understandable, but it still happened. We did have a poor start, but so did the Champions elect, both for the same reason, so I excluded that.

It wasn’t about this being a Pogba thread, I chose a post about what cost us a shot at the title race to ‘blame Axel’ - which I didn’t actually do. I said that the gap is not that big that any arbitrary thing can be picked that could have changed our season. An example of one of those things is the small, but costly role Axel played in our PL season. You may prefer to give a different example, based on the fact that you want to be nice and not mention the 6 year old we had in goal, because he’s only 6 - or the undercooked centre half we’ve had, because he’s only young.

I’ve chosen this particular example because Axel has barely played, so his input is easy to isolate, so as a result, makes it easier to use as an individual example. Axel has barely featured, and his few involvements are, as a result, easier to distill down to a a negative one. Using a De Gea mistake, for example, is kore difficult, because it will need to also be offset against points he has won, and then it just becomes the natural to and fro of football. Sadly, Axel has very little positive involvement to reference, but his few minutes on the pitch can unfortunately be more easily be linked to direct lost points. It’s therefore easy to hypothetically subtract his involvement altogether and imply that we will be better off.

Indeed, you can look at some forward players who haven’t been great, but they have all played a lot of football. Therefore, that is just the team that we have had. A team with forwards who haven’t been great. It stops becoming an example of an individual thing at that point. Otherwise we’d be basically saying that ‘if we had a better team, we’d have won the league’. My example is one that has little bearing on the general strength of the team that has played this season. They are the odd instances that could have had us in the race DESPITE any feeling of our attack not being that good, defence not being that good, goalkeeper etc. We’d have been near the top with our team not really needing to be any better than it is, if not for a few unfortunate Axel contributions.

 

[OrcaFat]

But he DOES play in the double pivot for us the majority of the time.

So he is NOT consistent at the position we need him in

He doesn’t really play in a double pivot that much. When he’s playing, the media often show the line up / formation as 4231 with Pogba as one of the 2 but he doesn’t actually play there really, he’s more like an 8 to my mind. I think this worked best last year when Matic was playing but asking Fred or McT to do the Matic role is a waste of breath. Until we get a Matic replacement, I think I prefer Pogba starting from the left as part of the 3 in a 4231.

As this is the appreciation thread, let me say I was not really keen on keeping Pogba but I am a convert. As others have said, if you get him fit and play him in a position that gives him some freedom without damaging the balance of the team, he is a very good player, makes the team play better and can be a match winner.

 

[Ali Dia]

Liking this aggressive Pogba! He needs to chill a bit though

 

[RikRuud]

Why was he captain tonight? I thought Bruno was the Vice. Last ditch effort to sweeten Pogba up?

 

[MrBrightside1989]

Pogba was good tonight. Is a top player when he has this level of hunger. I would like to see him as a 6 on Sunday alongside Mctominay. Fred was poor on the ball again tonight.

 

[Chicharo]

Great assist. Our best player atm. and has been for some time

 

[RedIan]

A beast of a player in this form. our most important player atm which is saying a lot with Bruno in the team.

 

[Dante]

Say what you want about Pogba, the British media really love him.

 

[Judas]

He's comfortably our best player technically. Unreal when he's in the mood.

 

[pablo__p]

When he switches on he plays in a league of his own. Unreal potential.

 

[Borys]

He's comfortably our best player technically. Unreal when he's in the mood.

He makes a perfect touch and then a bad one. He's a man with beautiful, but very inconsistent technique (which fools people to think he's much better than in reality).

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

Giving Pogba an armband is strange because technically it’s telling everyone that he’s the vice captain since Bruno is also playing. I can only think because they already in agreement about the new contract and Pogba will be given the vice captain.

 

[OverratedOpinion]

Giving Pogba an armband is strange because technically it’s telling everyone that he’s the vice captain since Bruno is also playing. I can only think because they already in agreement about the new contract.

The armband just doesn't really mean anything. In a game where you are already 2-0 up against a side you should beat this becomes amplified even further.

Ole probably felt "hey this might go a tiny way to keeping a good player and has no real downside, why not?"

Doubt it means he has agreed a new contract.

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

The armband just doesn't really mean anything. In a game where you are already 2-0 up against a side you should beat this becomes amplified even further.

Ole probably felt "hey this might go a tiny way to keeping a good player and has no real downside, why not?"

Doubt it means he has agreed a new contract.

Ole’s strategy to make Pogba signs a new contract then, genius.

 

[OverratedOpinion]

Ole’s strategy to make Pogba signs a new contract then, genius.

Starting to hope so no matter how much it would infuriate me for us to give his agent another few million.

 

[::sonny::]

He will never sign a new deal, bench him till 30.06.2022

 

[OverratedOpinion]

He will never sign a new deal, bench him till 30.06.2022

Why do that if we are less likely to win stuff?

 

[Counterfactual]

He will never sign a new deal, bench him till 30.06.2022

Radical!

You'd spend ~£15m on wages, disrupt the dressing room until June 2022, let him leave on a free and deprive us of a good talent on the pitch... for what?

 

[Matriac]

Radical!

You'd spend ~£15m on wages, disrupt the dressing room until June 2022, let him leave on a free and deprive us of a good talent on the pitch... for what?

So we don't look like mugs of course. Also, pashun!

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

Pogba got injured when we were 6 points off, we started that awful run of draws, and after winning a few games before his return, we’re playing like how we did when he got to the top of the league in the first place back in November-January now that he’s back. City have been extremely consistent, but you’d think we might still be in with a shout had he been fit. Possibly an extra 4 points (Everton, Palace).

Yeah that’s fair, I guess I was thinking more in terms of actually being able to win the title. Certainly would have been made more interesting though.