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Football

06th Mar 2018

Gary Neville offered some seriously strong criticism of Paul Pogba on Monday Night Footbal

It had to be said

Robert Redmond

“It’s like everything he does is all for a YouTube or Instagram video.”

Gary Neville offered some strong criticism of Paul Pogba at half-time of Manchester United’s Premier League game with Crystal Palace on Monday night. United won the match 3-2 thanks to Nemanja Matic’s last-minute goal. Jose Mourinho’s side came from two goals down to beat the relegation-threatened team at Selhurst Park, and went into half-time trailing 1-0.

Andros Townsend finished off a well-worked Palace counter-attack to give the home side the lead, but Pogba, in particular, was defensively suspect in the build-up.

The French midfielder gave the ball away and then switched-off as Palace came forward, leaving an ocean of space in front of him for Townsend to run into and score. As highlighted here, Pogba was oblivious to Townsend behind him and didn’t bother looking around or sprinting back into position. He eventually reacted as Townsend went to shoot, but by then it was too late.

Neville spoke about Pogba’s part in the goal at half-time and didn’t hold back.

The former United defender said that Pogba plays like “he’s on the park with his mates” and he can understand why Mourinho has dropped him for recent games.

“It’s been nowhere near good enough,” Neville said.

“Pogba’s great strength is that he plays with freedom like he’s playing on the park with his mates, but his great weakness is that he’s playing on the park with his mates. It’s like everything he does is all for a YouTube or Instagram video. It’s like it’s not serious – like it’s a joke to him. There’s no wonder Jose Mourinho has left him out in recent weeks.”

You can watch a clip of Neville here: