The Reasoning Behind United's World Record Move for Pogba
After the latest talks with Manchester United about Paul Pogba, Juventus were still completely unmoving on their asking price of €120m - with all representative fees to be thrown on top of that too - and it’s a figure that’s still a little hard to get your head around.
It’s all the more difficult to comprehend if you solely consider the player’s performances at Euro 2016. With Pogba taking centre stage of a tournament his own country were hosting, expectation had almost built to the point that he was expected to emulate Zinedine Zidane and deliver the trophy with definitive individual displays, just as the midfield maestro managed in 1998.
That didn’t happen. In fact, Pogba didn’t make much happen at all. He obviously wasn’t the complete flop that some seem to be arguing, but he was just quiet, only ever showing the odd flash of that obvious talent. Pogba often seemed constrained by his position, in fact, but that might be the key to comprehending why it is not quite so utterly ludicrous to paying so much for what is mostly potential.
As gradually became clearer throughout Euro 2016 and was made painfully apparent in the final, Didier Deschamps never figured out how to properly use the 23-year-old’s abilities, and ended up just awkwardly fitting him into very fixed roles rather than looking to integrate the player into a fluid midfield that released him. The defeat to Portugal was the nadir, as it was like Pogba had been ordered not to leave the centre circle. This just wasn’t the best use of his quality.
It was, however, very like some of Steven Gerrard’s most frustrating displays for Liverpool and England; when he was being shoe-horned into a position that didn’t fully suit his excellence. It was one of the most persistent issues with Gerrard’s otherwise brilliant career, and could yet be a defining one for Pogba’s nascent career.
Because of the way the long-legged French star combines exhilarating physical power with supreme technical ability, but so often seems shackled and subdued by roles that require more tactical discipline, the comparisons with the Liverpool legend come easy. Finding exactly the right position to fully maximise his quality isn’t so easy, as Deschamps found, but Mourinho may well have a solution.
He certainly had a clear role in mind for Gerrard at Chelsea in 2005, explaining why he was so keen to sign the English midfielder that summer, and it’s equally difficult not to think he has the same thing in mind for Pogba. There was an instructive press conference with Mourinho at Chelsea last season, even if he was talking about playmakers, as so many traits seemed applicable to the French international.
“I like a number 10 to score goals. I like a number 10 to get in the box. I like a number 10 to score Oscar goal against Maccabi. A number 10 for me is an eight-and-a-half when the team loses the ball, and the number 10 is a nine-and-a-half when the team has the ball.”
The point here isn’t that Pogba would necessarily play number-10, although that can’t be ruled out. The point is Mourinho’s emphasis on movement, on power. They are characteristics United’s mostly turgid midfield need above anything, and they are what Pogba provides in abundance.
At Juve last season, he dribbled 2.9 times per game - the third most in Serie A - and that was more than anyone at Mourinho’s 2014/15 Chelsea title-winning team, bar Eden Hazard at 4.9. He also offered more interceptions than anyone in that midfield, with 1.3 per game, except Nemanja Matic on two. Pogba will also regularly try his luck from distance, with 3.5 shots per match.
Even though Mourinho does have alternative options, it’s still likely he has very specific position in mind for Pogba’s very specific abilities. He really could be key in that sense. United just have to unlock negotiations - or go all in.
The money could be truly preposterous, but the reality is it already always some way ludicrous. When you have as many commercial deals as United do, does £20m really make that much of a difference, given it’s a player so desired? Failure to get him could make a real difference to their approach and that is something else United have to get their heads around.
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