POGBA’S ‘All I heard was him screaming and shouting at his own players. When it was half-time, he was shouting at them all even louder,’ says Dirk Kuyt
FORMER Liverpool striker Dirk Kuyt has revealed that Paul Pogba is frustrated by Manchester UnIted’s lack of style under Jose Mourinho.
As Mourinho toils to find a tactical system that will enable the world’s most expensive footballer to flourish, Feyenoord veteran Kuyt witnessed Pogba go into meltdown as the Dutch club beat United 1-0 in the Europa League on Thursday night.
Now, after winning the first three Premier League games of his Old Trafford tenure, the United boss finds himself experiencing what Sir Alex Ferguson used to call “a cracked badge week”.
The Reds travel to Watford today – and a third successive defeat following the loss in Rotterdam and a derby-day humbling at the hands of Pep Guardiola last weekend – will plunge Mourinho into a crisis.
And Kuyt’s observations about £89million Pogba illustrate how the Frenchman is suffering.
He said: “All I heard during the first half against United was Pogba screaming and shouting at his own players.
“And when it was half time, he was shouting at them all even louder. He was screaming at them, about the things which were not going right for the team.
“The thing about United is that they only know one way to play.
“We waited for them to attack and stayed very compact as a team because we knew that if you attack them from the beginning then you run into a knife. They love to counterattack. But if you stop them doing that, then you know that you will always get chances against them.” Even Ferguson had days to forget, when a defeat would prompt tabloid sub-editors to draw up the famous club crest on their back pages with a fault line running straight through the heart of the Red Devil. Now Mourinho knows the feeling. Pogba is struggling to live up to the hype following his arrival from Juventus – and he isn’t the only one. The super coach must find a tactical system that will also allow captain Wayne Rooney and £30m new boy Henrikh Mkhitaryan to excel. But first United must win at Vicarage Road. Anything less is unthinkable. A crisis, just five games into the new campaign, was not what United’s owners bought into when they sacked Louis van Gaal with champagne stains still on the FA Cup. The players Mourinho inherited finished outside the top four only on goal difference. And on his arrival he was allowed to lavish £160m on Pogba, Mkhitaryan and Eric Bailly, while Zlatan I brahimovic was handed a £250,000-aweek contract. Mourinho’s failure to find a place in his team for teenage sensation Marcus Rashford in the early weeks of the season has also raised further doubts about his willingness to trust young players. Mourinho hailed himself as the Special One when he arrived at Chelsea 12 years ago – and now he’s expected to prove that’s still the case. His second stint at Stamford Bridge ended in the sack last December. And the midweek defeat at De Kuip means he has now lost 13 of his last 31 games as a boss in England.
Mourinho’s arrival was seen as the only way United could compete with Guardiola’s City.
Old Trafford vicechairman Ed Woodward would have crawled all the way to Munich over broken glass to land the Catalan.
But Guardiola’s arrival at the Etihad had been set in stone when Ferguson was still king of the Stretford End.
Handing Mourinho the chance to undermine his archenemy was a big part of United’s plan.
Instead, while Guardiola’s impact at the Et ihad has been instant, Mourinho has struggled to put his philosophy into practice.
Questions are already being asked about whether the 53-year-old feels at home in Manchester.
His family remain ensconced at the west London mansion that was home when he was at Chelsea.
In contrast, Guardiola has settled his family into a luxury city-centre apartment.
United’s finances will take a huge hit if they fail to qualify for the Champions League.
Their £75m-a-year sponsorship deal with adidas will be slashed by 30 per cent if they finish outside the top four.
And it is understood that adidas have told United that they expect the club to sign at least one stellar player every TREATMENT ROOM Watford: Man United: ODDS TO WIN Watford: Draw: Manchester United: