£130M FOR POGBA ..ARE THEY FOR REAL? Solskjaer insists midfielder’s head hasn’t been turned by Madrid but his game has fallen apart since
fell away towards the end. But the effort he put in was tremendous.”
Pogba scored eight goals and provided five assists in his first 10 games under Solskjaer, after being marginalised by former boss Jose Mourinho. But he has drawn a blank, in terms of goals, in his last eight games and produced a solitary assist in that same run.
Despite Solskjaer’s defence of Pogba’s display against Barca (above), he created little of note. He played the full 90 minutes but was unable to produce a shot, while his pass-completion rate came in at just 87.8 per cent.
He won 70 per cent of his 10 duels, but significantly made no successful tackles or clearances, and also made Minutes played ........................ 90 Goals .............................................. 0 Shots on target .......................... 0 Shots off target .......................... 0 Blocked shots .............................. 0 Total passes ................................ 41 Accurate passes ....................... 36 Pass completition ............ 87.8% Accurate forward passes ....... 24 Key passes ................................... 2 Duels ............................................. 10 Duel success ......................... 70% Tackles .......................................... 0 Clearance ..................................... 0 Lost balls ..................................... 10 just one recovery of the ball. Solskjaer admitted he will need to be ruthless when overhauling his Old Trafford squad this summer. After 10 wins from 11 when he arrived, United have lost four of their last five games in all competitions to underline the scale of the task facing him.
But he said he is fully aware of what he must do if he is to close the gap on Manchester City and Liverpool and turn United into title challengers.
Up to six players – Ander Herrera, Juan Mata, Antonio Valencia, Matteo Darmian, Marcos Rojo and Alexis Sanchez – will leave United this summer, with Pogba’s future uncertain.
“I’m under no illusions that this is going to be plain sailing,” said Solskjaer. “It’s going to be hard. It’s going to be survival of the fittest or survival of the best. That’s how ruthless we have to be. We need players who are going to be able to take us forward.
“That means the culture in the dressing room and what we do every single day here to make us challenge again.
“Liverpool and Manchester City are too far ahead of us for our liking and this week we played against a Barcelona team that sets the standard in European football.
“As I said, we’re under no illusions. It’s going to be hard work and there will need to be some tough decisions made by me and the club.”