Cybereagles

benteke wrote:The rumours of Mourinho vs Pogba bust up continue to gather pace ever since that game vs Spurs when they could be seen arguing on the pitch.

Is Mourinho correct that some of these guys are too casual, allegedly Pogba is not happy being played out of position

I doubt that it is that serious. Mourinho usually doesn't fight in season II of III...

oloye wrote:

benteke wrote:

wiseone wrote:The way things stand, if Man Utd drop any more points, City could become champs on the day of the Manchester derby. Meaning that Man Utd will have to form a guard of honour for the City players...

I still remember when Ferguson had United players form a guard of honour for Chelsea in Mourinho's first stint in 2005, so humiliating it was they took their title back from Chelsea.

This lot of United players might need that kind of humiliation so that they fight back hard next season and stop Pep from running riot.

These lot do not know what honor and humiliation means....it is all about money these days. These ones would even ask for autographs from City players and exchange jerseys.

you are describing Arsenal players?

Chief Ogbunigwe wrote:

benteke wrote:The rumours of Mourinho vs Pogba bust up continue to gather pace ever since that game vs Spurs when they could be seen arguing on the pitch.

Is Mourinho correct that some of these guys are too casual, allegedly Pogba is not happy being played out of position

I doubt that it is that serious. Mourinho usually doesn't fight in season II of III...

I would like to think you are being sarcastic

But honestly there's a big issue around Pogba even last season, that he has not replicated his Juventus form because most times he is not playing in his preferred position.

So I'm asking if the real issue is that Pogba is just being too casual at times and not putting in the work required to play in midfield, a few of my mates were saying just look at De Bruyne at City he is playing central midfield with no problems and putting in serious defensive work as well.
Maybe i can get a different view in CE.

A sports writer in the Times yesterday said that City's flair players enjoy the hard work that Pep makes them do (which is focused on recovering the ball high up the pitch), whereas Utd's players do not relish the hard work Jose makes them do (which is mainly defensive).

The last time Pogba played to the left of a midfield 3 (Everton) he was sensational and looked like the player he was at Juve. So of course Jose immediately reverted to playing him in a midfield 2 that saw him getting overrun and get dropped for Scott McTominay because he does not like the extra defensive responsibility.

benteke wrote: But honestly there's a big issue around Pogba even last season, that he has not replicated his Juventus form because most times he is not playing in his preferred position.

So I'm asking if the real issue is that Pogba is just being too casual at times and not putting in the work required to play in midfield, a few of my mates were saying just look at De Bruyne at City he is playing central midfield with no problems and putting in serious defensive work as well.
Maybe i can get a different view in CE.

wiseone wrote:A sports writer in the Times yesterday said that City's flair players enjoy the hard work that Pep makes them do (which is focused on recovering the ball high up the pitch), whereas Utd's players do not relish the hard work Jose makes them do (which is mainly defensive).

The last time Pogba played to the left of a midfield 3 (Everton) he was sensational and looked like the player he was at Juve. So of course Jose immediately reverted to playing him in a midfield 3 that saw him getting overrun and get dropped for Scott McTominay because he does not like the extra defensive responsibility.

benteke wrote: But honestly there's a big issue around Pogba even last season, that he has not replicated his Juventus form because most times he is not playing in his preferred position.

So I'm asking if the real issue is that Pogba is just being too casual at times and not putting in the work required to play in midfield, a few of my mates were saying just look at De Bruyne at City he is playing central midfield with no problems and putting in serious defensive work as well.
Maybe i can get a different view in CE.

So are we saying United players would probably enjoy defensive work under Pep, unlike under Mourinho.

Would Pogba enjoy the work ethic that Pep demands, or rather did Pep avoid Pogba because he is a potential problem when it comes to Pep's demands for defensive work ethic, something that made him quarrel with Yaya.

Maybe that's the problem, because Mourinho has always struck me a manager who demands a lot of work ethic from his team.
Klopp is the same, but in a different way.

The LVG/SAF-esque injuries have not helped Pogba settle in. Andrew Smith and Fellaini could be the etxra man in midfield to help free Pogba to push forward. Sadly they have joined the long injury list:

Valencia
Jonesy
Mark Red
Blind
Andrew Smith
Fellaini
Rashford
Zlatan

When you add that to Carrick and Pogba who just returned from injury - Man Utd look very light in midfield.

Pogba starts on the bench for the CL game at Sevilla.
I shall not be reading too much into it and hope he is being kept fresh for the Chelsea game.

Perhaps he has not fully recovered from his illness? I think playing Blind in CM (whenever he gets back) would also aid Pogba as he would have Blind and Matic covering behind him, and would be freed up to wreak havoc going forward.

benteke wrote:Pogba starts on the bench for the CL game at Sevilla.
I shall not be reading too much into it and hope he is being kept fresh for the Chelsea game.

wiseone wrote:The LVG/SAF-esque injuries have not helped Pogba settle in. Andrew Smith and Fellaini could be the etxra man in midfield to help free Pogba to push forward. Sadly they have joined the long injury list:

Valencia
Jonesy
Mark Red
Blind
Andrew Smith
Fellaini
Rashford
Zlatan

When you add that to Carrick and Pogba who just returned from injury - Man Utd look very light in midfield.

Valencia starting so where you get this injuries story?

He was injured last week and was unavailable for the Everton game (he was injured - not rested). Sometimes footballers have injuries that heal and allow them to resume their career!

kajifu wrote:
Valencia starting so where you get this injuries story?

Pogba being treated like a bouncer by single-minded Mourinho
Peter Staunton


Signed to be the centrepiece of the new United, the £89m man is suffering at the hands of a manager who wants to harness his power, not his finesse

Jose Mourinho gave the BT Sport reporter Des Kelly a hug in his Champions League post-match interview on Wednesday. Why? Des asked him about Scott McTominay, who started against Sevilla, rather than Paul Pogba, who didn't. It gave Mourinho the opportunity to wax lyrical about all the things the young midfielder could do while at the same time hinting at the things Pogba could not.

“He did everything well,” the Manchester United manager said of McTominay's display in the last 16 first leg. “He put lots of pressure on Banega, which was important to stop him to play. He was always comfortable - simple, safe in possession. I think he was brilliant.

“But I have also to say that in my opinion the midfield started really well. And then when Herrera came out Paul made a big effort to go into that dynamic that we need. And I think he had also a positive performance.”

There you have it. The 21-year-old making only his second Champions League start was “brilliant”. Pogba, a veteran of Champions League and European Championship finals, and with four Serie A title and an £89 million price tag to his name “made a big effort”.

It clearly demonstrates the attitude Mourinho currently harbours towards the most talented player in his squad. He wants him to do things – like press Ever Banega and play simple, safe passes deep in midfield – that would seem to run contrary to his skillset.

He doesn’t want Pogba to be United’s Mesut Ozil – as his attributes suggest he could be. He would appear to have little interest in unlocking his creative potential. Rather, he wants another Nemanja Matic. In the midfield position, he demands discipline, destruction and caution in possession. And he wants Pogba to do it for him.

Mourinho looks at Pogba and maybe sees a player who should be good at those things. But appearances can be deceptive. Just because Pogba is a big, powerful man, it doesn’t mean he is best deployed as a bouncer.

Nor in any sane universe should he find himself behind McTominay in the pecking order. It is nothing short of insulting for a player of his standing to be told to sit and learn from an apprentice with no more than 20 games played in his senior United career.


Pogba should feel more aggrieved by his latest demotion than the one he suffered under Sir Alex Ferguson before he decided to walk out on a free transfer to Juventus. Back then, it was Rafael and Park Ji-sung keeping him out of the team for a home defeat against Blackburn Rovers which seemingly swayed Pogba – and agent Mino Raiola – into thinking the player's future lay away from Old Trafford.

Now Mourinho is attempting to do with Pogba what he has done with more than one United player since turning up at Old Trafford.

The 2004 and 2010 Champions League winner has a very clearly defined strategy in how he wants his teams to defend. Once those fundamentals have been taken care of, then the team can start thinking about how the goals are going to come. Everyone has a job in this defensive structure and everyone will follow it or else risked being dropped.

It is not a case of Mourinho fitting a shape around the abilities of his player but the players fitting around the shape. Luke Shaw, Anthony Martial and Henrikh Mkhitaryan have all been victims of this aspect of Mourinho’s management style. If a player will not do the exact job he asks, the player will be banished, no matter what he cost.

Subjecting Pogba to this technique, however, is to misinterpret the kind of player Mourinho has on his hands. Pogba is not the type who should be shoehorned into a broadly reactive style of football. He is one who should be the focal point in a positive, attacking team.

Mourinho’s pre- and post-match press conferences in Sevilla were dominated by speculation over Pogba’s place in the team and it’s easy to figure out why. Mourinho feigned exasperation over those questions but has got to accept that scrutiny of that kind of decision comes with the territory

It was accepted at the outset of Mourinho’s regime that Pogba was going to be the centrepiece of the New Manchester United – a long-term investment to construct a team around. Less than two seasons later and it is clear that this is not the case. For now, Mourinho regards him as a luxury player - not to be trusted in the highest-profile European match of the season.

It gives a glimmer too into what direction Mourinho sees United heading. He has added not only Pogba but Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez to his squad but it appears he is putting together what will eventually be a functional, counter-attack machine when it takes its final shape.

It is a pretty rudimentary prospect and one which – perhaps – falls short of expectations on this club given its status as the world’s richest by revenues. All that money and this is where Mourinho wants to take them.

There is undoubtedly a need to spend big again this summer in order to get United up a level. But it’s inevitable that if Mourinho gets his way there’ll be more Matics than Pogbas arriving and within that system there will always be a space for a McTominay, who will press, harry and destroy exactly like his manager tells him

http://www.goal.com/en/news/pogba-being ... ngjm5d2m47

The press love to make a big song and dance about everything Mourinho does. The reason he picks Scott McTominay instead of Pogba is not because Scott is a better player than PP. It is because a young player like Scott who just broke into the first team and who is grateful to be playing for his childhood club alongside players he used to watch on TV as a kid, will do EXACTLY what the manager tells him and will stick to the tactical plan - just so he can stay in the team. Whereas one of the most famous players in the world is more likely to resist tactical instructions and have his own independent ideas about how he should best be deployed.

Pogba should never have signed for Man utd. He should have seen this coming. It's his own fault.

guest83 wrote:Pogba should never have signed for Man utd. He should have seen this coming. It's his own fault.

No other club was prepared to pay that ridiculous transfer fee for him and Juventus wanted to rationalise their asset.

guest83 wrote:Pogba should never have signed for Man utd. He should have seen this coming. It's his own fault.

I agree with you....he should have waited for you to come and sign him Una sef....not everytime do you get the opportunity to be signed for that amount.

Usually the player and his agents would have discussed with the coach to find out what plans or role or in what capacity he would be used. Unless maybe it was just the money they were after.

At the end of the day it was is own decision to sign. I understand the crazy money involved but still..this is on him. Everyone knows Mourinho is an assh...

guest83 wrote:At the end of the day it was is own decision to sign. I understand the crazy money involved but still..this is on him. Everyone knows Mourinho is an assh...

The power of ego can make a devil look like an angel.

Hopefully what has happend with Pogba and for that matter Neymar, could change the market a bit? I mean, so that it won't be only a matter of money. Because both players look miserable even with all the money they are making.

Updated injury list:

Jonesy (of course!)
Mark Red (of course!)
Blind
Andrew Smith (out for 6 more weeks - in addition to the 1-2 months he has already been out injured)
Fellaini
Zlatan

There will be vacancies in the squad next season due to the likely departures of Zlatan and Carrick, and Fellaini and Blind who are in the final year of their contracts. I cannot imagine that Darmian will hang around in the stands for much longer.

Two astonishing stats from the Palace -v- Man Utd game earlier this week:

1) Sanchez gave the ball away 19 (NINETEEN!) times in the first half alone.

2) When Palace were 2-0 up, they were 13th in the table. When Man Utd equalised, they dropped back into the relegation zone.

wiseone wrote:Two astonishing stats from the Palace -v- Man Utd game earlier this week:

1) Sanchez gave the ball away 19 (NINETEEN!) times in the first half alone.

2) When Palace were 2-0 up, they were 13th in the table. When Man Utd equalised, they dropped back into the relegation zone.

On Sanchez and his famous turnovers, I have observed him very closely since joining United. His issue is easily corrected. At Arsenal, I thought it was a simple case of him trying so hard to break the opponents but I've now observed that it's a case of poor decision-making. Sanchez, a huge top professional, keeps making the amateur mistake of going for the spectacular and not keeping things simple.

Most often Sanchez had better choices but kept forcing the ball to the middle of the attack fruitlessly trying to locate a tightly marked Lukaku. A simpler choice in most of these cases was to roll the ball to his overlapping wingback/fullback. For some strange reason, Sanchez appear not to be in favor of passing to advancing wingbacks. I'm still exploring why? Maybe because he is not an aerial threat so he is not in favor of attacking via crosses from the wings so prefers targeting his main striker hoping for a 1-2 exchange to free him up for scoring opportunities.

This issue must be corrected. He must learn to mix things up and not stick with one approach.

On current form, Sanchez should not be in the first 11. I would put him on the bench for the Liverpool game.