Pogba

comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 36 minutes ago
Thought we played pretty well, our fishing was abysmal and the ref had a clanger with their goal.
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Good catch

Last night we were creating chances for fun when Pogba and Sancho were on the field. Losing was a disappointment but that was actually one of the best performances of the season until we ran out of steam and withdrew those two. Yes, against a very limited side, but in the dark days of twilight Solskjaer there's no way we would have regularly carved open a hard working, in form Championship team.

We all know that Pogba has his limitations as a player. Anyone with eyes should also know he can be incredibly effective when used in the right way. If Rangnick doesn't play him in a double pivot, there's every chance that he'll suddenly look a much less 'inconsistent' or 'unmotivated' player - maybe even to his committed detractors.

comment by Ole dirty Baztard - penited and penandes (U19119)
posted 26 minutes ago
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 36 minutes ago
Thought we played pretty well, our fishing was abysmal and the ref had a clanger with their goal.
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Good catch
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We really let them off the hook

comment by Ji Sung Park's Cousin - It's Beekers! (U2958)
posted 17 seconds ago
comment by Ole dirty Baztard - penited and penandes (U19119)
posted 26 minutes ago
comment by Busby (U19985)
posted 36 minutes ago
Thought we played pretty well, our fishing was abysmal and the ref had a clanger with their goal.
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Good catch
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We really let them off the hook
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The first half was the best transitional play I have seen from us for a long and we pressed with good energy and intensity, it’s baffling how we lost that game, other an absolute joke of an handball rule I never knew existed and teams taking an amazing series of penalties against us in shootouts that 19 straight unbelievable.

My worry is how as a collective team we fell away after the equaliser was allowed, Pogba going off was a big part as we lost control in midfield as we so often do to any half decent hard working team and then become disjointed, a couple of decent midfield options and we could be a very good team.

Yea, we should have netted a few, no doubt.

The goals and assists per minutes is certainly an interesting stat (and one I think worth double checking) but four assists against Leeds and no goals or assists in his last ten games sums Pogba up pretty well.

There's a reason no one has bought him for the money Utd would want.

Given time and space he can certainly pick a pass though.

It's a bit skewed to look at individual stats when the whole team was collapsing in on itself.

comment by Ji Sung Park's Cousin - It's Beekers! (U2958)
posted 3 minutes ago
It's a bit skewed to look at individual stats when the whole team was collapsing in on itself.
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I think it's a bit skewed to look at things like his 18/19 stats, which was his best season for Utd.

Of his 13 goals 8 were penalties I believe and two against Huddersfield.

I'm not saying they dont count but to put him in the same breathe as Lampard, Gerrard and Toure is pretty laughable given the context.

Not sure the PL counts winning penalties as an assist either.

the stats i quoted were excluding penalties scored; normally penalties won are not counted as assists, true, personally i'm happy to lump them in. not sure what fbref use, but this should hopefully show the goals + assists - penalties figure:

https://fbref.com/en/stathead/player_comparison.cgi?request=1&sum=0&comp_type=spec&dom_lg=1&spec_comps=9&player_id1=867239d3&player_id2=c204f844&player_id3=caeb5442&player_id4=268df6b1

and, to be clear, i would never use the bare stats to claim that pogba was "better" than any of those three, but i do think that it is a reasonable retort to the claim (or, bluntly, lie) that for every good game he has he then has 2 bad ones.

I do get where you're coming from as the criticism is often too harsh (as ever on here the truth will be somewhere in between) but for many I think he simply doesn't pass the eye test.

He certainly will never be considered a Prem great, despite the numbers. Would he even be considered top 10 or even 20? I doubt it and you have to wonder why given the numbers.

But right now, for Utd, the best thing they can do is get him on the pitch making goals. Skill set wise I've always wondered why he's not given more license centrally in and around the box. Seems the same for France and Juve too. You negate his passing range a bit but he has an excellent shot with little back lift and is a bit of a monster in the air too.