Pogba told he must rebuild trust to reclaim United place
Jose Mourinho has challenged Paul Pogba to earn his trust at Manchester United and has praised the midfielder for his response to being told he was going to be dropped for the Champions League tie against Sevilla.
Pogba is likely to be back in the starting line up for tomorrow’s match with Chelsea, but the tension between the manager and United’s most expensive player has cast a shadow over the club in recent weeks.
Mourinho is not one to back down in a dispute, but neither does he want to prolong one unnecessarily and he was full of compliments for the way Pogba handled himself in Spain, particularly dealing with coming off the bench after just 17 minutes to replace the injured Ander Herrera. But he also made a pointed remark about players needing to earn his trust when answering a question about why he had placed so much faith in Scott Mctominay.
“I don’t give trust for free,” said Mourinho. “I think [it] is the other way around. I don’t think it’s about the manager to trust the player, is the player to make the manager trust him, is as simple as that.
“Sometimes, it looks like we have to give everything to the players, and they give nothing back to us, I don’t think that way.
“The confidence and trust I show towards Scott, he earned it since day one, since he come to the first team training sessions, step by step, with a lot to learn and a long way to go, even now, after I would say maybe eight starts, something like that, he has a lot to learn. But since the first moment, he was learning that is the way to perform.
“Of course, he will have bad matches and make mistakes and be on the bench and not be selected, but I know when I want him to play. I know the kind of mentality, the player I am developing, I know the qualities that will make him a really good player.”
Pogba is already a really good player, as well as United’s record signing, but his form has dipped alarmingly and Mourinho made a very public point by dropping him. The comments about Mctominay would also appear to apply to Pogba who, despite his £89million price tag, is still just 24.
With that in mind, Mourinho praised Pogba for the role he played in the goalless draw with Sevilla and will look for further evidence the message is getting through to the France international about how he needs to play, but also conduct himself around the training ground.
“You saw the game against Sevilla,” said Mourinho when asked about Pogba’s reaction to being dropped. “It’s always more difficult to come from the bench than to start.
“A player when he is starting the game has a different kind of preparation for it, to be on the bench and to come on without warming up and getting to the pace of the game is not easy. I think he had a very positive game for us and some details are details.
“Some players take five minutes to be ready to play, they don’t have shin pads, strapping, the shirt, he took 10 seconds to be ready to come to the pitch, to show the professionalism and show he was ready to help the team.
“He responded well, in a professional way both times [he has been dropped]. He was on the bench against Huddersfield in the Premier League and he responded in a professional way and he was on the bench in Sevilla and did the same.”