The worst kept secret of the summer is finally over as Manchester United announced they have signed Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba late Monday night. The move immediately takes Manchester United from Premier League title contenders to Premier League title favorites. United will pay Juventus an £89.3 million transfer fee, breaking the record Real Madrid set in 2013 when they paid £85 million to sign Gareth Bale from Tottenham.
Paul Pogba. 🙌 #POGBACK pic.twitter.com/NhHjhWx5XT
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) August 9, 2016
Pogba is Jose Mourinho’s fourth signing of the summer as the manager looks to revamp the squad in his first season in charge at Old Trafford. His final move was to reunite Pogba with his original club, after United let Pogba sign with Juventus for free following the 2012 season when he failed to establish himself in Sir Alex Ferguson’s first team plans.
For United, Pogba should be the replacement for Paul Scholes that the club has been seeking for the last five years. He’ll step in as the dynamic midfielder that the club has desperately needed over the past few seasons.
The arrival of Pogba isn’t all perfect for the club. Along with a £89.3 million price tag will come with a lot of expectations, expectations that Pogba may not be able to meet. Right away there are already concerns with where exactly Pogba will fit within the United team.
The early expectation is for Pogba to play in central midfield alongside Michael Carrick in Jose Mourinho’s 4-2-3-1 formation. However, we saw him play that role this summer for France in Euro 2016 and the results were very underwhelming.
Pogba is a player that can do it all. He can score, he can pass, he can play a killer ball, he can tackle, and he can defend. At his best, he’s a box to box midfielder, a player that gets up and down the field and coordinates the attack. Playing Pogba as a second holding midfielder is a complete waste of his talents, something that French manager Didier Deschamps was heavily criticized for, which begs the question as to why would Jose Mourinho would do the same thing.
Pogba can also play as a number 10, but Mourinho seems pretty dead set on playing captain Wayne Rooney in that role. If Rooney isn’t there he may opt to play Marcus Rashford as a second striker, or play new signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan rather than Pogba. If he does move Pogba up to the number 10 role it creates the same question United have had for years, who plays as the central midfield pair?
This all comes from the problem that Mourinho prefers a 4-2-3-1 formation and that formation does not really allow for a box-to-box midfielder. Instead it specializes each role, you have your attackers up front, and the two central midfielders stay back to protect the back four. To keep Pogba back there prevents him from doing what he does best, taking over the game.
In truth, in most games Michael Carrick is capable of playing the holding role on his own, in fact over the past two years Manchester United have been at their best when playing exactly that way. If Pogba is lined up next to Carrick then in a perfect world Carrick can protect the back four while Pogba gets up and down the field.
If United truly wanted to get the best out of Pogba they would shift their formation to more of a 4-4-1-1 like they often played under Sir Alex Ferguson. With players like Carrick or Morgan Schneiderlin playing next to Pogba you wouldn’t have to worry about both central midfielders straying too far forward and ending up with a lack of cover at the back.
But this is of course Jose Mourinho were talking about. A man not exactly known for changing his ways or giving players too much freedom on the pitch. Mourinho is more than likely to stick with the 4-2-3-1 formation, with Pogba playing in that midfield two.
At the same time, this is Jose Mourinho were talking about. It’s hard to believe that he would buy such an expensive player without a plan on how to get the best out of him.
At the end of the day, there’s no denying that Manchester United have signed one of the best players in the world. Pogba will put United in a great position to try and win their first Premier League title since Sir Alex Ferguson retired. Let’s just hope they know how to use him.
