Former Chelsea defender Marcel Desailly has criticised fellow countryman Paul Pogba for his poor work rate.
The Frenchman did not start against Atletico Madrid, and when asked why Fred And Scott McTominay were picked ahead of him last night, Desailly explained that, while the midfielder had more quality than his teammates, he couldn’t be trusted to defend:
“Quality-wise you cannot compare Pogba to Fred or McTominay or Matic but he is lazy, he’s lazy. If you allow him to be some kind of playmaker behind Ronaldo he will take advantage of it. When it goes well he is fantastic, but when it doesn’t go well – offensively he hasn’t brought what everyone was expecting. And at the same time, he will cheat a little bit. He will not drop back and help the midfield on the defensive intensity.”
It is quite a brutal assessment from Desailly but, for the most part, it is a pretty fair summary about Pogba’s lack of interest in doing the dirty work when selected in a deeper-lying midfield role.
Ralf Rangnick and previous managers such as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Jose Mourinho have found it difficult to find a system that works both for Pogba and the team as a whole.
The fact that he wasn’t trusted versus Atletico kind of sums up where Pogba is at in regards to his United career. With his contract set to expire this summer, a parting of the ways seems almost inevitable.
