‘To live happy, live hidden’ – Pogba prefers to do his talking on the pitch
The Manchester United midfielder is being urged to step up his game having struggled to live up to his astronomical price tag since his world record move to Old Trafford
‘To live happy, live hidden.’ Paul Pogba knows the saying and has already adopted the idea with reporters. Last Friday, at the Stade de France, when the midfielder was challenged by a colleague on the fact that he hasn’t addressed the press for several months, Pogba said: “I prefer to talk on the field.”
At 23, the Lagny-sur-Marne native regularly talks to team-mates and won’t hesitate to give his opinion during a game. But Pogba needs to lead on the field. Since the beginning of October, the word “leader” has often been used in press conferences. And, without Patrice Evra, and with a very young France team, Les Bleus boss Didier Deschamps knows he needs players to step up and this includes Pogba, who has featured in the last 16 France fixtures – something no other player has done.
A world record move to Manchester United in the summer saw expectation soar. However, since returning to Old Trafford, Pogba has struggled to replicate the performances he previously delivered on a consistent basis.
“He played differently with the France team compared with Juventus, or now at Manchester United,” admitted Antoine Griezmann on Friday. “We expect him to be the hub of the team, not that he scores goals from 50 yards out.”
Pogba’s role has changed. For France, he is expected to take up a deeper position in which he keeps things simple and makes the team tick, rather than the flashy, creative role in which he enjoyed so much success at Juventus.
“It’s not the playmaker role,” Deschamps acknowledged in a press conference. “This is a role to help the team to build and to protect the defence from a central midfield position. But he has all the qualities to do it well.”
The stats from France’s game against Bulgaria support this. Pogba registered the most passes into the box (67), and made more tackles (5) than any of his team-mates on Friday.
But the debate about Pogba’s position is not new. Former team-mate Marco Rosenfelder recalls Pogba’s eye for goal from when the pair played for France’s Under-17s.
“The coach, Guy Ferrier, had put everything in place so that Paul played more as a N°8 than 6,” he said. “He needed his offensive actions, he liked to shoot, he loved to score goals.”
For Papis Magassa, his first coach, the appeal of Pogba in attack is obvious. “Pogba played as a striker, scored 50 goals a season, if not more,” he said. “It’s normal that he drives forward. When you have tasted the pleasure of scoring goals, you cannot discard this… So, yes, he is a midfielder, but he is in an environment where he wants to score goals to be remembered.”
Except that, 15 years later, every mistake is now scrutinised.
“Today, everything he does is examined under a microscope,” explained international team-mate Moussa Sissoko on Saturday at Clairefontaine. “But we must not forget that he’s still a young player.”
He still has to improve in certain areas, even though he returned to England for an astronomical amount of money in the summer on the back of being considered as the best midfielder in the world.
It’s not just the dribbles and the changes of speed, Paul Pogba has to learn to do the quiet, simple things to be more efficient. It’s not necessarily what he loves to do, but at least he no longer needs to hide.
