da bet7： No player in world football right now splits opinion with the same sharpness as Paul Pogba. To some, he’s a technical genius tortured by the positional shackles imposed upon him by Jose Mourinho; to others, he’s an overrated and overpaid consequence of social media popularity, situated at the very epitome of Manchester United’s most troubling flaws.
da luck： Thus, as Pogba celebrates a 25th birthday that will only further polarise the juxtaposing schools of critique by moving him from the realms of developing young player into the peak footballing years where the utmost consistency is inevitably expected, there’s an important question to answer.
How can a player who one of the best managers of his generation felt necessary to pay a world-record fee for, who has won a succession of titles in Serie A and trophies in England, who was named Europe’s Golden Boy in 2013 and the Best Young Player at the World Cup a year later, create such an incredible chasm of opinion?
Has the entirety of world football bought into a level of hype that Pogba simply can’t live up to? Has he become the inadvertent lightening rod for all criticism at Old Trafford? Are former professionals like Roy Keane and Graeme Souness treating him harshly for the sake of outspoken harshness? Or are there other, more important factors at work?
Of course, the elephant in the room is that £90million transfer fee, one that most would argue the Frenchman is yet to come anywhere close to justifying. It was no doubt an inflated sum, one that played on Pogba’s potential and the bargaining power of his much-maligned agent Mino Raiola, but even just 18 months on it doesn’t seem quite exuberant as it originally appeared.
United paid almost as much to sign Lukaku last summer, a player with comparatively marginal experience at the top level of the game despite being of the same age, while PSG and Barcelona’s dealings in the transfer market since – namely the signings of Philippe Coutinho, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe – have raised the spending precedent even further. If the ultimate grievance is Pogba not proving value for money, there are countless players at major clubs that applies to due to the inflation of the transfer market. Yet few of them receive the same scrutiny as the United midfielder, who finds himself at the centre of every post-match narrative, even when he’s not in the team.
“Pogba is a big problem and if he can’t get in the starting 11 then you’re in trouble. You expect big players to come on and change the game. He came on last night and did nothing.
We saw with the first goal, his reaction to it was like a schoolboy. He doesn’t smell danger. The reason you’re part of a team is that when your team-mate makes a mistake, you cover for him and make up for it.”
Roy Keane
Inevitably though, there is a generational gap between Pogba and the pundits who criticise him, and you have to wonder whether their biggest irritation is the 25-year-old or what he’s come to represent. Pogba is the face of modern football and the increasingly disliked trimmings that come with it; he’s as much a fashion icon and a social media influencer as he is a professional footballer, and for those who belonged to a prior generation less obsessed with a level of superstardom that transcends the game, it inevitably makes him an easy target.
Superficial punditry or not, every underwhelming performance allows pundits to claim he’s more interested in haircuts than winning trophies. But this is an elite footballer we’re talking about, under the wing of arguably the most pragmatic manager in the business. It’s impossible to buy into the notion that Pogba’s lust for victory is so greatly lesser than those in the studio was during their playing days.
That has, however, solidified the spotlight that shines down on Pogba and made him the poster-boy of this current era at Manchester United. His first Northwest derby at Old Trafford was a telling moment, encircled by his own hashtag that flooded the advertising hoardings. If you’re prepared to self-publicise in such an audacious way, hijacking England’s most successful club and the greatest fixture in English football, you inevitably need to live up to those lofty expectations. In many ways, the incredible marketing and brand awareness that accompanies Pogba obliges him to be the centre of attention. Great news when he’s playing well, not so much when he isn’t.
“Where is the Paul Pogba we saw at Juventus? He was all over the pitch, he was battling, he was tackling, he was sprinting to people, he was scoring goals from 25 yards out. He is just strolling through games. He does not look like a player who will win you games and that is what you pay £90m for.”
Paul Scholes
But there’s another debate to be had here, and quite an important one. The likes of Paul Scholes and Souness often question Pogba’s capacity as a match-winner, to the extent a former world-record signing and United’s club-record signing should theoretically be. But how many midfielders across the sport can claim to be at that level right now?
Goalscoring midfielders like Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard have become a significantly less frequent breed, and most commonly it’s the central strikers or the wide forwards who have the biggest impact on games. Sometimes it feels as if Pogba is expected to rival the influence of Eden Hazard or Neymar because he cost so much – but his role within the team is wholly different. It’s rare a central midfielder is singled out as the decisive factor in any given match, yet Pogba is expected to be that practically every time he’s on the field.
That being said, even being judged exclusively as a midfielder, there often seems to be something missing from Pogba’s pallet, which is where the whole debate over whether Mourinho is the manager to get the best out of him truly stems from.
Even Pogba’s biggest critics will admit he boasts technical quality in abundance; the problem, though, is that he seemingly lacks the game intelligence, the positional understanding and the maturity to match. On the ball, there’s often an unnecessary over-complexity to what he’s trying to achieve. Off the ball, meanwhile, he almost seems to not understand what his role should be and how he can best nullify his opposing number.
“When he’s asked to do a job centrally, he’s forever straying towards the ball. A central midfielder should never be in areas wider than the penalty box, unless they are out there to confront danger defensively.
When your side are in possession you should always be thinking: “If it breaks down, I’m out of the game.” Pogba empties that central area far too readily. He will do something clever in the final third, but will be absent when his back four are under the cosh. He plays like a schoolboy running after the ball in the playground.”
Graeme Souness
Indeed, for all the criticism Mourinho received upon lining up Pogba in deep-lying midfield, there is an alternative view point that shouldn’t be ignored – why exactly, can’t Pogba fulfil the basic duties of a holding midfielder? If Andres Iniesta, Lampard, Wesley Snjeider or any other attacking midfielder that comes to mind were asked to sit in front of the defence rather than push forward, they would comfortably produce the fundamental discipline to do so – even if they fail to provide their best form.
Scott McTominay, who has only just emerged from the youth team, has already proved a far more functional option, seemingly understanding the position’s primary obligations far better than a 49-cap France international with over 300 competitive appearances under his belt.
Add in the fact Pogba has all the requisites to be as effective a defensive midfielder as an offensive one in terms of strength, athleticism and technical ability, and Pogba’s struggles at the base of midfield truly are baffling – only adding to the argument that his most fundamental flaws as a footballer are in the mind. They can’t be resolved so easily.
Suddenly, the argument shifts to how Mourinho can form a team around Pogba’s strengths while hiding his weaknesses. Once again though, many would argue he’s yet to really earn that right during his second Old Trafford spell.
It’s not only been an issue at United either; during the 2016 European Championships, Didier Deschamps subbed off Pogba during France’s first two games, and found his midfield to be far more effective without theoretically the most talented player at his disposal.
Yet, tactics and positions in football constantly change and evolve, and it’s only when footballers are put into certain contexts that we truly understand why that is. There appears to be a new kind of midfielder breaking through and Pogba is by no means alone in this breed. Tiemoue Bakayoko too, is another player who seemingly lacks the natural positional understanding for deep midfield, yet was devastating for Monaco last season when he broke forward from it.
Renato Sanches, likewise, was once revered as amongst the most exciting players in the world because of his ability to dribble through from the engine room – now, the Portuguese can’t even get a game at Swansea. Surely it’s not a coincidence these three players are all so similar in mould as dynamic dribblers from central midfield and have shown flashes of unstoppable brilliance in periods of their careers, but now find themselves out of form, out of favour and under the microscope in the Premier League.
For all the claims that Pogba isn’t a complete player, which seemingly only rings truer than ever on his 25th birthday, perhaps in a few years as the game starts to change it will become more apparent why this new generation of midfielder has emerged and how they can best be utilised.
Right now though, Pogba needs to find a way of being effective in the current climate; if he thought the scrutiny was unwarranted before, it will only become more intense as he enters his peak years.
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