Problematic Pogba seeks Stockholm salvation
United’s record buy bids to end underwhelming season on the up
LONDON — Following a season of fits and starts, Paul Pogba will be expected to deliver the goods when Manchester United tackles Ajax in the Europa League final on Wednesday (02:45 on Thursda, Beijing time).
Much like his team, Pogba has shown only fleeting flickers of excellence since his world-record $116 million return to United from Juventus last year.
With Jose Mourinho’s side needing to beat Ajax to qualify for the Champions League, Pogba has a chance to salvage both his club’s season and silence his own critics.
“When you pay nearly 90 million pounds for someone, you would expect them to blow your mind away at times on the pitch,” former England striker Alan Shearer wrote in The Sun recently.
“But there have not been many times — if any this season — when you have watched the former Juventus midfielder and thought, ‘Wow!’”
United’s showdown with Peter Bosz’s precocious Ajax team at Stockholm’s Friends Arena follows a difficult period for Pogba.
The 24-year-old France midfielder recently spent time on the sidelines with what Mourinho described as muscle fatigue.
Reports suggested he is being treated for a hamstring problem that sidelined him for three weeks in late March.
It emerged recently that world governing body FIFA is investigating Pogba’s switch from Juventus amid reports his agent, Mino Raiola, made around $50 million on the deal.
Also, Pogba recently lost his father, Fassou Antoine, following a long illness. After a period of compassionate leave, Pogba returned to the starting XI against Crystal Palace on Sunday, contributing a goal and an assist as United closed its league campaign with a 2-0 win.
He created the opener for 21-year-old Josh Harrop with a fine outside-of-the-boot pass and scored United’s second before being withdrawn at half time with the Ajax match in mind.
Pogba celebrated his goal by pointing to the sky above Old Trafford and later posted on social media: “My goal is for my Pap.”
The strike was Pogba’s first in the Premier League since he headed in an 86th-minute winner in a 2-1 home victory over Middlesbrough on New Year’s Eve.
He briefly found some good form around this period, scoring three goals and supplying three assists in 10 league matches, and picked up a League Cup winner’s medal in February.
However, prior to Sunday’s game against Palace, he had not played a part in a league goal in 2017.
In the Europa League knockout phase, it has been Pogba’s fellow offseason signings Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, as well as young striker Marcus Rashford, who have typically carried the fight.
Jose happy
But Mourinho continues to express satisfaction with Pogba’s contributions, singling out his display on a difficult pitch in United’s 1-1 draw at Russian side Rostov in the Europa League last 16.
“The way he played in Rostov was really amazing,” the United manager told Omnisport.
“He had little matches where the performance was not so good, but normally the performance is related to the team.
“So when the team was very good, he was very good. When the team didn’t perform so well, he didn’t perform so well.
“If his transfer fee was half of it, everybody would say ‘What a buy’ or ‘He’s playing more than good’.
“But everybody expects performances according to that huge transfer fee and that brings pressure and that brings sometimes unfair analysis.”