Jose Mourinho: Persuading Paul Pogba to join Manchester United was tough

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has told Goal it was "hard" to convince midfielder Paul Pogba to join the club.

United signed Pogba from Juventus in a world record £89.3 million deal over the summer.

But former Chelsea boss Mourinho said it had not been easy for him to bring the France international to Old Trafford.

"Oh, it was hard to convince him. I had many conversations on the phone, lots of SMS," the manager said.

"I think he was getting one in the morning from the manager from another big club and one in the afternoon from myself. I had to try hard to convince him to choose us instead of the other one."

Pogba, however, was criticised for his performance in the weekend's 2-1 home defeat to derby rivals Manchester City.

Former England midfielder Jermaine Jenas, now a pundit, said he believed Pogba needed to be in a 4-3-3 formation rather than the 4-2-3-1 United have been using.

He told Yahoo Sports: "There would still be scope for a No. 10 in some games, against the lesser teams perhaps, but generally speaking a 4-3-3 is what Pogba and Zlatan [Ibrahimovic] need to flourish.

"Pogba is a creative player. He's not a defensive or deep-lying midfielder because, no matter how good you are in that role, you'll never be worth £90m."

Arindam is ESPN FC's Manchester United correspondent. Follow him @ARejSport