Paul Pogba’s Mixed Manchester United Season Deserves Reasoned Consideration
Paul Pogba’s Manchester United career appears only to be discussed in opposite extremes. This phenomena of things being either “amazing” or “terrible,” of polar opposite views being shouted at each other over cyberspace is hardly unique to Pogba, of course, but he is a pretty extreme example.
After United’s frustrating defeat to Chelsea in the FA Cup Sixth Round, Jose Mourinho called Pogba “the best player on the pitch,” which at a real stretch might be correct if you take the maximum possible top level of any of the players involved but was not even close to accurate if he was talking the game that had just played out. That game was, sadly, characterised by the fact that N’Golo Kante outperformed him in every department, including the one you’d expect Pogba to be a heavy favourite in; lashing in the winner from 25 yards.
But, as social media discussion has exhaustingly proved, there are plenty of people—United supporters as much as fans of other clubs—ready to write Pogba off. Indeed, sitting in the South Stand as Pogba misplaced a pass against St. Etienne, someone literally did say “how many million for that?” Of course that same person had said they preferred going to rugby because “you can have a drink in your seat,” so, you know…
There are social and cultural issues at work here, but the question of the price tag is also super relevant because the £89 million spent to bring Pogba to England acts as a filter for every conversation about him. “For a £90 million pound player, he should be doing better there,” might be a reasonable complaint but it is ridiculously one dimensional.
First off, the price against which he is being judged is incredibly poorly contextualised.
For example, fifteen million of the amount can instantly be discounted. The result of the referendum to leave the EU held in Britain in summer 2016 heavily effected the exchange rate between the Euro and the Pound. Assuming Juventus and United had already agreed a price in Euros (and the round 105m Euros suggests they did), it would have been £74 million were it not for Brexit (data courtesy of journalist Andy Mitten on Twitter).
Pogba fee is €105 million. That's £89 million. Would've been £74 million had be been bought before the pound crashed.
— Andy Mitten (@AndyMitten) August 7, 2016
That is obviously a lot of money, but in a summer in which Granit Xhaka went to Arsenal for £33.8m, where Mitchy Batshuayi signed for Chelsea for £33m, where Islam Slimani cost £29m and John Stones cost £47.5m, the vast, unimaginable money paid for Pogba does not seem so vast or unimaginable (all prices per Football 365). It is an expensive transfer, even in that market, but the baseline is just so much higher than it was even a season prior. Summer 2016 was the first after the new Premier League broadcast rights deal and now £70m really is the new £40-50m.
While this hopefully establishes that Pogba’s transfer fee being that high under the circumstances does not mean he should be Gareth Bale or Cristiano Ronaldo in terms of impact, it does mean his impact should be considerably above average—he can reasonably be expected to be one of the best midfielders in the Premier League this season.
And there have been times when he has not been. Liverpool at home and Chelsea in the FA cup are two standout examples. He struggled in the first half of the League Cup final, but grew into the game significantly in the last twenty minutes or so—in fact he had the ball 8.7 per cent of the time in that period, with only Michael Carrick able to match him for influence on that score.
In general, while there have been bad games at important moments, Pogba has easily been one of United’s best overall performers this season. He is averaging two key passes per 90 minutes, a figure which suggests his three league assists would be considerably higher if his forwards—Zlatan Ibrahimovic in particular—were less profligate. The only players ranked higher than this for chance creation per 90 minutes at United have played exclusively as out-and-out attacking midfielders, rather than the more wide-ranging role assigned to Pogba.
He is second only to Ander Herrera in most passes on average per 90 minutes, a figure which shows how much of the play comes through him, and his key pass average being fully 0.6 per 90 higher than Herrera’s shows how much more likely it is that his passing will be decisive. At 1.8 tackles and 1.2 interceptions per game, he is also putting in the work defensively. Those are not United’s standout numbers, but you would not want them to be—there are other players who should be putting up bigger defensive numbers, Pogba just needs to be making the right kind of contribution. (Advanced data per WhoScored.com).
It does not take a huge leap of logic to suggest that Pogba has suffered from the expectations associated with his price tag.
His desperation to impress is never more obvious than when United are struggling. And there have been plenty of times when that has gone wrong. But he has also set up Ibrahimovic for vital goals, in a variety of competitions. He has scored the odd blinder himself, though not enough. There are valid criticisms of his season so far, but there are plenty of reasons to sing his praises too.
And there is so much more to come from Pogba. There perhaps should have been more already, but in a season when his manager has been experimenting almost from the word go, a season after a European Championships in which he suffered crushing disappointment, a season after a summer in which his profile was raised to its highest point yet, at the age of just 23, perhaps some more nuance is required when discussing Paul Pogba.
Related articles:
