Pogba out to destroy his Anfield jinx
THE Kop is vast, Liverpool are 2-0 up and United have a penalty. Liverpool’s goalscorer, Adam Morgan, has just goaded the away followers in the Anfield Road End by flashing five fingers. But Liverpool are down to 10 men.
United’s penalty taker, a lanky beanpole midfielder, shuffles towards the ball, blanking out the Scouse arm-waving behind the goal and behind him, orchestrated by the scallywag Jon Flanagan.
He reaches the spot and kicks thin air, sending the gullible goalkeeper to the right. The taker then slots the ball to the left. Two-one? No, it is still 2-0.
Raheem Sterling admires his opponent’s gall but his team-mates protest. Referee David Coote signals a retake and flashes a yellow card. He then remembers it is the taker’s second caution and hurriedly reaches for the red. Paul Pogba has been sent off.
Pogba was two days short of his 18th birthday when he first sampled the Anfield atmosphere with United’s Under-18s. Ron Atkinson once likened the ground to Vietnam after the Reds were greeted with tear gas in 1986 and faeces were tossed onto the away fans during the toxic
FA Cup fifth round tie in 2006. Even in a largely sparse Anfield, the enmity between Liverpool and United has rarely been as febrile in the modern age as it was during that 2011 FA Youth Cup quarterfinal.
Pogba was the second of four dismissals as United recovered to triumph 3-2.
The Frenchman has not exorcised his Anfield hex since he first strode into the ground nearly a decade ago. Ineffectual as a playmaker in the spirited goalless draw in 2016, he was absent through injury the following year, an unused substitute in Jose Mourinho’s last stand in 2018 and unavailable again last year.
Even on home territory against Liverpool, Pogba spurned a oneon-one and brainlessly conceded a penalty by dabbing at the ball in the January 2017 draw.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is now having to select his United XI days, sometimes weeks, in advance of the fixture’s date and Pogba’s starting role at Burnley, with Scott
McTominay and Fred benched, suggested he was pencilled in to be a substitute at Liverpool. Not anymore.
United have to accommodate Pogba when he conducts attacks with such virtuosity as the early secondhalf breakaway at Burnley.
New first-team coach Darren Fletcher possessed a biggame prowess comparable with Mark Hughes and, he is perfect to coax such performances out of Pogba, whose impact against the elite would make for an ostentatious trailer, if not the full picture. Solskjaer could revert to his trusted trio of Fred, McTominay and Bruno Fernandes against Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday, with Pogba positioned on the left, where he started against City and Wolves. Trent Alexander-Arnold has raised the bar for attacking rightbacks but, defensively, is suspect and Marcus Rashford rinsed him in United’s last win over Liverpool in 2018.
Anthony Martial didn’t on Alex
United have to accommodate Pogba when he conducts attacks with such virtuosity
ander-Arnold’s full league debut the previous year and Mourinho was so frustrated the French forward was dropped completely from the next two squads.
Rashford struck the opener at Old Trafford last term amid Alexander-Arnold’s defensive doziness and he was especially egregious in Liverpool’s defeat at Southampton.
Pogba is unlikely to be on penalty duties this weekend and United have been awarded three spotkicks at Anfield in the Premier League era - all of them in front of their supporters at the Anfield Road End (Denis Irwin and Robin van Persie were successful, Wayne Rooney was not). Louis Saha was denied when hacked off his feet by Daniel Agger in 2007, although if Martin Atkinson had pointed to the spot, United fans might have been denied the delirium of John O’Shea’s winner.
It is possible the Reds have not had a penalty at The Kop since 1953, when Roger Byrne struck in a 4-4 draw.
Only Pogba, Cole and Sam Hewson, on target in the 2007 FA Youth Cup final first leg, have had the nerve to step up for United at that end in recent memory.
But this weekend The Kop will be sparse, rather than vast.