POGBA FARCE
Neville’s blast after star takes penalty off Rashford and misses
GArY NEVillE slammed Manchester united’s lack of leadership following a penalty farce last night.
Paul Pogba missed his fourth spot kick in 12 months after pulling rank on Marcus rashford during the 1-1 draw at Wolves. it cost united the chance to go top of the Premier league table.
Ole Gunnar solskjaer insisted that Pogba and rashford are the club’s two designated penalty takers, but Neville was dumbfounded by the ‘tombola’ of dishing out responsibilities.
‘Why is there a debate on who takes a penalty?’ asked sky pundit Neville. ‘rashford scored last week, take the penalty. But there wasn’t a leader on the
pitch. (Daniel) James was there, (Anthony) Martial — they couldn’t make a decision between them. Something is not right there. Initially I was fuming with Pogba. I’m holding back on Pogba because he may be the penalty-taker here. But they should decide before they play. This is a Manchester United penalty. This is not a tombola.’ Solskjaer was adamant that the process would not change despite Rui Patricio stopping Pogba’s effort a week after Rashford had scored against Chelsea. ‘It’s up to him in that moment,’ said Solskjaer. ‘Sometimes players just feel they’re confident enough to score. Paul has scored penalties for us. The two of them have been very confident before and Marcus scored a goal last week. ‘When there are two names there, it’s the one who is the most confident. Sometimes in a game you do grow in confidence or sometimes it is, “I don’t want to take it today because I’ve had a bad day”.’ Rashford, who has never missed a penalty as a professional, tried to deflect blame from Pogba. ‘Paul wanted to take it, so he took it,’ he said. ‘We decide who wants to take it. It’s not on Pogba, it’s on the team.’ Sky’s Jamie Carragher added: ‘I would have loved Rashford to say, “No, I’m taking it”. That will happen every game now. It has to be sorted. ‘I would like Pogba to think of the team and tell Rashford he can take them or Solskjaer to be strong and tell Pogba that Rashford is taking them. It’s a joke.’ Meanwhile, Wolves manager Nuno Espirito Santo claimed VAR is taking too long to rule on goals after the hosts were made to wait before Ruben Neves’ brilliant equaliser was confirmed. ‘That’s what is worrying me,’ he said. ‘We’ll be afraid to celebrate a goal. They have to find a solution.’