Pogba breaks silence on Mourinho
PAUL POGBA HAS broken his silence on his relationship with Jose Mourinho insisting there is no problem between him and the Manchester United manager.
The 25-year-old midfielder has spent time out of the United first team in recent months, notably being restricted to a late substitute appearance against Sevilla in the Champions League and missing out altogether against Brighton in the FA Cup.
He did, however, start and finish Saturday’s Premier League victory over Swansea, and when speaking to French broadcaster TF1 he stressed there is no problem between him and Mourinho.
“Not at all! He’s my coach. I respect all his choices,” he said. “I’m playing less. It’s something that’s not happened to me before. In my young career, I’ve always played for 90 minutes and haven’t found myself on the bench. But here we are, it’s happening.
“What I’ve been going through, I’ve never experienced it before. But I think it can make me stronger. One has to go through these things to turn a corner.”
Pogba returned to United from Juventus in 2016 and won the Europa League and League Cup last season. He has made 28 appearances in all competitions for Mourinho’s side this term. Meanwhile, ahead of this weekend’s derby with rivals City Mourinho claims to not have given the game much thought but believes United deserve second spot ahead of much-lauded Liverpool and Tottenham. “Manchester City is not important for me,” he said after a 2-0 win over Swansea. “Important for me is that since the moment we left the first position and went to second, we stayed there for the whole of the season. “We deserved to feel second in spite of what you can say, the critics you make, you all say the third, fourth, fifth, sixth are better than us but they are not better than us because we have more points than them. “We are going to fight every match. Seven matches to go, we are going to fight to try and finish second - and this guy is going to keep Swansea in the Premier League. (Carlos Carvalhal) is the manager of the season because they were dead, and he is going to save them.” – The Independent