Following Manchester United's resounding defeat at Liverpool, Craig Burley slams the club's lack of leadership, from the boardroom to the pitch.
Jose Mourinho was happy with his team selection and has no regrets about not playing Paul Pogba
Jose Mourinho did not appreciate getting asked if he has the backing of the dressing room following Manchester United's loss to Liverpool.
Will Paul Pogba be a Manchester United player by the time United play Paris Saint-Germain in his home city of Paris in March? The French World Cup winner, who sat on the bench as United were outclassed and beaten 3-1 at Liverpool on Sunday for a second defeat in five days, might be United's record signing and the man with the most commercial pull at the club, but he has long been open to leaving, and his coach, Jose Mourinho, would have no problem with him doing so.
Pogba and Mourinho have had an awful 2018, which has resulted in arguments, most recently in the dressing room at Southampton when United's manager told him exactly what he thought of him and his negative influence on the rest of the team. Not every player agrees, considering many have issues with Mourinho, but how is a great football team supposed to develop out of this environment? They both have their points of view, and there's an increasing belief at the club that the team would be better off without the pair of them.
Mourinho feels pressure to play Pogba even when he isn't in form. He has told people that in private, if not publicly. He also thought that the deal to bring Pogba to Old Trafford was being done before he took charge.
United absolutely refute that. They say Pogba was signed with Mourinho's full backing. United also refute that Pogba was signed for commercial reasons, yet part of United's strategy in convincing players such as Pogba to join them over, say, Real Madrid, as it was in 2016, was to show how his image would be boosted if he joined United rather than the Spaniards. Statistics about social media followers when Pogba was linked to United were used to show him that he would be a much bigger deal for United than Madrid, who were already an established side of superstars.
United's intentions were all positive, as they were when United signed Mourinho, but this season has been a horror. The team are regressing, and United are aware that Pogba's value is doing exactly the same, especially as he sits on the bench.
Neither Jose Mourinho nor Paul Pogba appears to have much of a future at Manchester United.
Pogba is under contract until 2021, but he'd be hard to shift without a loss. Barcelona, his preferred destination, were asked about him in the summer and baulked at both the likely transfer fee and the wages. The numbers don't match his stock.
But just as other sublimely gifted players such as Angel Di Maria and Juan Sebastian Veron didn't work out at United, the club are aware that they might have to take a hit. They'll hardly say this publicly -- they'd rather not show desperation and would prefer him to be in demand. At least Pogba showed with France what he's capable of because he has underwhelmed with United throughout 2018. It's so frustrating for United fans, considering that Pogba should be one of the best players in the world, something he proved at the World Cup.
Getting rid of Mourinho first might help Pogba's position. He'd be one of many in the dressing room who would welcome his coach's departure, but the Portuguese is likely to leave only if he fails to get the team into next season's Champions League. He'll be cheaper to pay off then, considering that his contract, like all players', is heavily incentivised.
That isn't set in stone. There's an increasingly negative atmosphere around the club and among the fans who are understandably fed up with the football they're watching and the results that left United out of the title race soon after it started. Mourinho asked to be judged after three years, and the fans have been patient and supportive, but a Monday poll on United We Stand's website suggested that 80 percent want the manager gone. They know he isn't wholly to blame, but he picks the team, has signed several of the players and should take part of the flak.
United have been here before -- in Paris, as it happens, in November 2005. Although United have never played PSG before in a competitive game, Lille moved their Champions League game against United to Stade de France.
United started the 2005-06 season poorly only months after the controversial Glazer takeover. Two days before the game in France, Roy Keane gave an interview to MUTV that was deemed so strong in content that it wasn't broadcast. That ultimately led to Keane leaving the club.
Many fans hoped Keane's words would launch a verbal rocket up the backsides of the players searching for a first away win in the Champions League in two years and a first away goal in a year, and the United fans sang the name of their injured captain before, during and after the game. His comments struck a chord, but the players could not respond against Claude Puel's physical but limited team.
United lost 1-0, and their ordinariness was staggering. Players might have been missing, and experience was short in key positions, but world-class talents such as Wayne Rooney, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Cristiano Ronaldo were still on the team sheet. At the final whistle, Van Nistelrooy ambled over to the travelling Reds by himself. The other players applauded from the halfway line, but the Dutchman wanted to make a point that the support was appreciated. He was cheered for his efforts, but the mood in the United end was still febrile with discontent.
After the game, Sir Alex Ferguson opined that United hadn't deserved to lose but hadn't played well enough to win. The reality was that United had seven shots and Lille 19. There was more talk about whether Fergie was the right man to take the club forward after that game than at any other point in the noughties, and United didn't make it out of the group stage -- when such a thing was unheard of.
"I see the Stretford End arising. I see there's trouble on the way," Reds chanted as they spilled out of the ground into the damp streets of Saint-Denis. They could be singing exactly the same now, with the team 19 points behind league leaders Liverpool and no end to the misery in sight.
Source: espn.co.uk