Search icon

Sport

09th Mar 2017

Manchester United fans were in no doubt about Paul Pogba’s performance against FC Rostov

"Pogba struggling against communist farmers. The most expensive footballer in history"

Robert Redmond

We’ve been here before with Paul Pogba.

Pogba has come in for heavy criticism for his performance in Manchester United’s 1-1 draw away to FC Rostov in the Europa League on Thursday night.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan, on his return from injury, gave United the lead in the first half before Aleksandr Bukharov equalised just after half-time for the Russian side.

However, considering Rostov have only lost one of their last eight games at home, and the pitch was in terrible condition, it appears to be a positive result for Jose Mourinho’s side.

United will be confident of advancing to the quarter-finals of the competition with the return leg to come at Old Trafford next week.

Some United fans found fault with the performance of one player though.

Pogba may receive added criticism because he’s the most expensive player in the history of football, and he’s still only 23, but there’s no escaping that he was poor against Rostov.

The French midfielder is very talented, and has the potential to develop into a world class player.

But, as Frank Lampard and Jamie Carragher highlighted from his performance against Bournemouth last Saturday, the 23-year-old can lack discipline, be defensively poor and is still a long way from being a player who can change a game.

With his price tag, and the hype around his return to Old Trafford, he is bound to come under extra scrutiny, especially when he doesn’t play well.

Some defended him though.

Catch up with this week’s episode of 888sport Football Friday Live