Pogba back in training

Who to say pogba won’t stay anyway?

Dream team.

Ronasaurus and Carlton in tandem 🥷🏾

comment by Don Draper's dandruff (U20155)
posted 4 hours, 31 minutes ago
comment by AFCISMYTEAM (U14931)
posted 2 minutes ago
Its easy to blame him but the whole team, squad, various managers, chairmen, owners, have ALL been pretty chit since Fergie left.
The expectation for him to take you lot to past highs was way too much imo, it's bigger than 1 player.
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sad when an opposition fan speaks more sense on the matter than many united fans.

in his first 3 seasons back he was, according to whoscored, the 3rd, 9th, and 11th best player in the pl - not best united player, not best midfielder, but best player. in 2 of those 3 seasons he was the highest ranked midfielder in the pl, and in all 3 he was united's highest ranked player (as he is this season, so 4 seasons out of 6 so far). he was also named player of the tournament when we won the ropey league, the only european trophy we have won in the past decade, and one of only 5 in our history.

yet because he hasn't "single-handedly dragged" us to a major trophy, people just get angry, all the time.
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I’ve nothing against Pogba and have always wanted to see him do well, especially for us - but third best player in the PL in his first season? Really?

comment by Clockwork Red: Jadon and the Argonauts (U4892)
posted 11 minutes ago

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I’ve nothing against Pogba and have always wanted to see him do well, especially for us - but third best player in the PL in his first season? Really?
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tbf, when people are suggesting jorginho - who pogba consistently outperforms at international tournaments - for the ballon d'or, it's not that outrageous.

the thing about pogba is that he's one of the best progressors of a ball in european football (basically progressive passes + dribbles) - i saw this today: https://twitter.com/utdarena/status/1483122534224699394/photo/1 - but also manages to be highly productive in terms of goals and assists.

stat 1 for today - across the 17/18 and 18/19 seasons he managed a non-penalty goal/assist every 166 minutes, only slightly worse than fernandes has managed since the beginning of last season, and all from midfield.

stat 2 - per 90 minutes, pl only, he has more non-penalty goals and assists than any of gerrard, lampard, or yaya toure (true story).

somewhat curiously his first season back was his least productive of his first 3 seasons, but also the one when our forwards (eg zlatan) were somewhat wasteful. but he still managed 5 goals and 4 assists, despite being paired in a midfield two with fellaini for his first 4 matches. yeah, really.

3rd definitely strikes even me as a bit lofty - ahead of kane, who managed 24 goals with 7 assists (!) - but i refer to whoscored not because it is infalliable, but because it is at least objective, and frankly gives a much better idea of pogba's quality than the deranged and vitriolic ramblings of some on here.

https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/2/Seasons/6335/Stages/13796/PlayerStatistics/England-Premier-League-2016-2017

comment by Ole dirty Baztard - penited and penandes (U19119)
posted 3 hours, 4 minutes ago
Who to say pogba won’t stay anyway?
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Mino Raiola ?

I think just for the lolz once a week someone should just light the fuse on Don and mention Pogba. Makes for good reading 🍿

comment by Robbb (U22716)
posted 2 minutes ago
I think just for the lolz once a week someone should just light the fuse on Don and mention Pogba. Makes for good reading 🍿
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now the ashes is done i thought you might need something to entertain you, and always happy to oblige

comment by Don Draper's dandruff (U20155)
posted 4 minutes ago
comment by Robbb (U22716)
posted 2 minutes ago
I think just for the lolz once a week someone should just light the fuse on Don and mention Pogba. Makes for good reading 🍿
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now the ashes is done i thought you might need something to entertain you, and always happy to oblige
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😎

First of all, good forum. Been coming on here for a while reading a fair few threads... before finally deciding to post.

On Pogba I rarely look at him as an individual, but on how much the team and particular players around him improve with him playing.

There was a period a year ago when he came back from injury and we went on a good run of results for about 13/14 league games back in Jan/Feb. What I saw in those games was the link up play between him and Bruno which was brilliant. And even though we were still leaking goals, the two of them played well together, brought out the best in each other and carried the creativity going forward. It wasn't so much that Pogba was assisting or scoring, it was more about how we moved the ball forward and the space he and Bruno created for each other and those around them. The link up play, reading each other's movement was very good.

Sod's law of course he was injured again by mid-Feb and I don't think they quite rekindled that partnership when he returned a couple of months later.

I do feel the same degree of anticipation though, with him, Bruno and Ronaldo this time. Add Greenwood, Cavani, and dare I say Sancho to the mix and why not look forward to his return? There's a missing piece in that midfield. Pogba may not be the one to fill it in the long run, but as he's shown last year in that period I mentioned, he's more than capable of making a difference in terms of our creativity and the performance of certain key players around him.

In talks with PSG now according to news outlets.