Pogba ‘virus’ sums up Reds’ malaise
United manager’s jibe at £89m record signing and faltering form must leave fans feeling sick
Nothing encapsulates the deep malaise that has permeated Old Trafford over the past year quite like the breakdown of Jose Mourinho’s relationship with Paul Pogba. It was almost 12 months ago to the day that Mourinho, fresh from seeing his record signing inspire Manchester United to a thrilling 3-1 win over Arsenal before a late red card, was talking about his side being an inferior proposition without the France midfielder as he prepared for a Manchester derby in the absence of his suspended talisman.
Now Pogba, dropped for the second time in three games after Saturday’s insipid showing at Southampton, is, in Mourinho’s eyes, a “virus” who overcomplicates things and is as expendable as the rest of them.
It did not take Hegel or any other great mind to recognise who Mourinho had in mind when he wrote in his programme notes last night that United’s best chance of beating Arsenal here was to remember that “simplicity is genius” and “there isn’t space for people that are not ready to give it their all”. But it was still hard to believe this was the same Pogba who he was gushing about last December. “Do you think I have in my team a midfield player who can create what Pogba did for the third goal at Arsenal?” Mourinho said then. “We don’t have one. There was a Manchester United with Paul, there was a Manchester United without Paul and we have another Manchester United with Paul. He is a player that has an impact on our style of play. That’s obvious.”
So United were asked to tackle Arsenal without Pogba (until the final 15 minutes anyway) and, while Mourinho will have seen as much to fret over as take heart in, it was at least pleasing to see that, for once, the drama did not all occur off the pitch at Old Trafford and Pogba’s omission soon became secondary to the glorious chaos unfolding on the field.
This was a basket case of a game in so many ways, but it made for riveting viewing and, after months of being left bored and agitated, there was a perverse pleasure for United fans to take in such twisted entertainment.
There will be a more sobering reality when they scrutinise the Premier League table this morning and establish that their side are now down to eighth, behind Bournemouth – yes, Bournemouth, whose £72million wage bill is less than a quarter of United’s – and the goal difference is still negative.
The bar is now so low that Mourinho was even talking about United being unbeaten in four, a run compromising dismal draws to Crystal Palace and Southampton and an underwhelming win over Young Boys.
But this was a 90 minutes that, for once, the Old Trafford faithful could fully immerse themselves in. United looked like they could concede at any point, but Arsenal hardly represented a ring of steel at the back either and the result was a pulsating game littered with mistakes and inexplicable moments, but a whole lot of fun all the same.
Despite Mourinho’s attempts to talk him up after the game, this was a baptism of fire for United’s young right-back, Diogo Dalot, making his first Premier League start, and Marcos Rojo could not have had a much more eventful first appearance of the season. It was from his free-kick that United conjured their first equaliser but he should not have been on the pitch by the time the Argentina defender blundered to gift Arsenal their second. Ring rust alone could not justify the way he dived in two-footed on Matteo Guendouzi, not when he has form for that sort of thing. How he escaped a red card was probably the same thing Everton’s Idrissa Gueye and Wilfried Zaha at Crystal Palace were asking when they felt the full force of Rojo’s studs a couple of years ago. But if Dalot and Rojo both had obvious excuses for such disjointed performances, Nemanja Matic is running out of them.
Pogba has become a popular scapegoat, but Mourinho’s reasoning becomes harder to justify when he continues to include Matic when, perhaps more than anyone of late, the Serb warrants being dropped.
Ander Herrera was excellent against Arsenal, pressing, harrying, harassing, but he was effectively having to do the job of two people in midfield such were Matic’s shortcomings.
There was a moment here late in the first half when Matic, out of position in what is becoming an increasingly worrying trend, was booked for pulling back Pierreemerick Aubameyang with the Arsenal striker about to dart away and it summed up a night when, once again, he looked off the pace throughout.
Watching Matic over the past couple of months has been like watching the slow, painful decline of a once high-quality holding midfielder and, while it is hard to know how much of it is confidence related and how much of it is down to ageing legs, he has been a shadow of his former self.
In the 83rd minute, Matic was dispossessed cheaply by Alexandre Lacazette, only to amble back in the most languid fashion. Imagine the reaction if Pogba had done that.