WE WERE HORRENDOUS
PaUl POGBa breezed past journalists as if he didn’t have a care in the world. ‘ You want me dead?’ joked the Manchester United star, turning down numerous requests for interviews.
Given the controversy his remarks have caused so far this season, it was probably a wise move.
his tongue-in- cheek quip was accompanied with a mischievous grin and ripple of laughter.
Needless to say the mood of his manager and team-mates would not have been quite so jovial. They had just lost 3-1 to West ham in one of the most abject performances from a Manchester United side during Jose Mourinho’s reign. and let’s be honest, there have been a few.
Yet, Pogba’s jaunty demeanour bore no reflection of what had come before. Perhaps it was just a front, a defence mechanism to hide his embarrassment.
United were feeble. his own performance was just as sub-standard and he was hooked after 70 minutes to ironic applause from the home crowd.
What did he have to be so relaxed about? Mourinho and the majority of Pogba’s teamm a t e s were already waiting on the bus desperate to make a quick getaway after an utterly depressing afternoon.
But despite being one of the last players out, Pogba kept his colleagues waiting even longer as he chatted to fans and posed for photographs before eventually boarding.
listen, fair play to Pogba for interacting. We criticise modernday footballers for their hesitance to engage. But certain figures at United will say there is a time and place for that sort of thing. This wasn’t the time.
Down 2-0 at half-time courtesy of Felipe anderson’s audacious early flick and Victor lindelof’s own goal, United’s players held an impromptu dressing-room inquest during the break.
‘Obviously at half-time there were a few words and I think it was needed,’ revealed luke Shaw.
‘It was a wake-up and words that have been said before — we need to be moving, we need to concentrate more, we need to want the ball, we need to be playing.’
It helped muster a response. Marcus Rashford, on as a secondhalf substitute, reduced the deficit in the 71st minute with his own delightful flick.
But Marko arnautovic re-established West ham’s two-goal lead just three minutes later. ‘If you want the truth I think, honestly, it was horrendous,’ continued Shaw.
‘We didn’t look like a team that were going to beat West ham. I think individually and as a team we were awful.
‘That’s not good enough. It’s hard to take and we’re sorry for the fans for what they saw. It was not good enough from a team with all the talent we have. That shouldn’t be happening.
‘Games like this we should be dominating, showing people why we deserve to play for Manchester United and that didn’t happen. Very, very poor.’
Well done to Shaw for fronting up, which is far more that can be said for a number of his teammates. But therein lies the problem for United — too few are willing to take responsibility.
The players know it. There is a core group in the United dressing room who fear that this squad’s inability to knuckle down when the going gets tough will continue to dog their season.
a change in manager will not solve that problem, though Mourinho is hardly making a convincing case to suggest he has the answers. he is starting to resemble a manager who has exhausted every avenue, a manager who simply does not know what else to do.
his surprise team selection showed that. Before a ball had been kicked, United reeked of negativity. Mourinho’s decision to play with a back five, including 21-yearold midfielder Scott McTominay at centre half, looked to have no rhyme or reason to it. That proved to be the case.
The fact that Eric Bailly was sitting on the bench watching McTominay play in his position in United’s defence was bizarre.
likewise, questions over alexis Sanchez’s below-par start to the season were amplified after the Chile striker was axed from the The view from the dressing room on United’s abject performance . . .
match-day squad despite making the trip down to London. Sources claim the Chilean was seething at his omission, which leaves Mourinho on course for another clash with one of his star players.
On the pitch, United were outmuscled, out-thought and outgrafted. Arnautovic, linked with a move to Old Trafford in the summer, bullied United’s defence, while Mark Noble, Declan Rice and Pedro Obiang ran the show in central midfield.
And in Issa Diop and Fabian Balbuena, Manuel Pellegrini looks to have formed an indomitable central defensive partnership.
After four losses from their opening four Premier League games, the new Hammers manager is starting to find some answers. For