That season kind of summed up his United career (albeit featuring a level of productivity he’s rarely managed since). Posting in his performances until Mourinho got sacked. Then Ole seemed to light a fire under him and it looked like he had finally clicked and was becoming the monster Yaya Toure-esque dominant figure we’d hoped for when he signed. Only to end up crashing back down to earth with all the usual arguments about how he was being used, what his best position is and who else we needed to sign to finally get him performing consistently.
I often wonder if his biggest flaw is an inability to stay properly motivated over the course of a whole season. He can keep it up for a dozen games or so but after that he just seems to lose interest and focus. Amateur psychology at its finest but looking back on his career it’s hard not to see it that way.
I remember that run well in the early days of Ole's reign we had a 4-3-3 with Matic playing very well, like new lease of life and Herrera playing very well too. Pogba was brilliant, linking up with Martial, the passing and movement was really good. With injuries to these players the run ended. Matic went back to being slow, Herrera didn't look good against Wolves in his first game back and there was his contract thing coming to ahead.
Probably Pogba's best form was in the 433 we played briefly with two quality players alongside playing well, trouble was this is clouded by Ole's new manager bounce. We're now playing him on the left to see some of the best of him, it's closer to where he likes but still not his best position which probably is in a 433. We spent 90m and 5 years misusing him or not getting fit replacements for Matic/Herrera. I remember Jose talking about Paul stepping up in maturity to play a main midfield role when signing him but it's not worked out well, just because he has the attributes doesn't mean he can do it for long periods like 40 games or we see the best of him.
His future is a bit of an odd one, it'd be nice to see him stay and have some quality available but he's not ousting Bruno, I'd prefer a fresh Rashford from the left, he's devastating from there when fit and a huge threat on the counter. Centre midfield, maybe with a solid player behind him, Pogba won't be this commanding midfielder that Jose seemed to envision and some of the fans expected. Is Pogba ok with featuring sometimes across 3 positions from the left to centre midfield, maybe he signs with a view to the club accepting a reasonable offer when the pandemic is over but I don't think he's worth the touted wages. With Allegri back at Juve I would've thought it would good to go back.