Like with anything that costs a fortune, you want to see your money spent to good use. Though, in the case of Paul Pogba, it is not the Manchester United fans that are consistently complaining about his performances, but, instead, it is rival fans.
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It is as if Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and any other fans who seem to have such entitlement are more interested in getting a valuable return on Pogba than the club who bought him.
Perhaps those fans lumped their pennies together and contributed towards the fee that was paid.
Also Read: Paul Pogba: Has he overcome the price tag?
In all seriousness though, it is very easy to criticise a player who cost a fortune. That is not to say that, in parts, the Frenchman hasn’t been underwhelming, he has; but, at times, he cannot do much more.
A quick look into Zlatan Ibrahimovic this season would say that he has hit England by storm and by already scoring 15 goals in his first Premier League, the Swedish striker is in with a hunt for the golden boot.
However, a deeper look would suggest that Ibrahimovic has missed 17 ‘big’ (as categorised by Sky Sports) chances in front of goal. That is a whopping amount of chances that, if taken, would put Manchester United firmly into the top four.
More than half of those chance have come from Pogba’s lovely, lofted through balls over the top of the defence, leaving Ibrahimovic a one-on-one with the goalkeeper.
Pogba has been instrumental in Manchester United’s attacks and as he shows glimpses of magic in its purest form, there is reason to be excited about this player.
Yes, the former Juventus midfielder cost a fortune (not for United’s standards, though), and yes, he hasn’t scored 10 goals and assisted 15 so far this season, but Pogba isn’t in the finished article yet and no one is trying to pretend that he is.
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You can argue that for a player to cost £89m that he should be joining his new club and setting off fireworks every time he plays. But that is not the case in any transfer. There is always going to be time to adjust and get used to your surroundings.
This is not an excuse: take a look at any young-ish player’s arrival to the Premier League and you can see that they weren’t at the peak of their powers until a few seasons in. Prime example being Eden Hazard.
As was discussed on Monday Night Football last week, Pogba neglects his defensive duties and has a lazy outlook on marking at set-pieces. On more than one occasion has a player escaped the clutches of Pogba’s reach and had a free header on goal. If it wasn't for David de Gea, things could be a lot worse for the Frenchman.
However, there is a simple question with an even simpler answer: would Manchester United be better off without Pogba? And the answer is obviously: no. They would be left in all sorts of trouble in midfield and those chances created would shrivel up very, very quickly.
Pogba has a year or so to reach the next level as a midfield player and enjoy his peak playing days, but in the meantime, he’s not doing a bad job.
Other players around him - mainly targeted at Ibrahimovic - need to start taking their chances that Pogba is creating. He might only be on four assists this season in all competitions, but he should be on at least 10 - and that’s no exaggeration, that is just the extent to which Man United’s strikers have let him down.
Also Read: Paul Pogba becomes first player to complete 1,000 passes in the opposition half
As shown in games this season, Pogba can create chances from nothing and provide trickery to beat a man with complete ease and intuition. At times, it can be quite scary watching this player when he has not reached his peak yet.
However, he needs to accomplish two things to reach that promise land: 1) add consistency to his performances, especially in the bigger games. And 2) work heavily on his defensive play as that is as important as attacking for a box-to-box midfielder.
Pogba would be wasted as a deep-lying playmaker - the same position Michael Carrick is in now - and needs to push on forward and either create the chances or be in a position to score them.
When at Juventus, it was obvious to see how composed Pogba was in front of goal and found the back of the net consistently.
Time is on his side and it would be ridiculous to write him off as a ‘flop’ or, as some weird fans like to label people, a ‘fraud’. The signs are there, it is now just about unleashing the magic on a regular basis.
