By Susan
Manchester United’s Paul Pogba has replied his critics, telling them not to use his transfer fee as a yard-stick for judging his performances on the pitch.
After a successful four-year spell with Juventus in Italy, the French midfielder’s return to Man United last summer made him the most expensive player in the world.
Having released him for free in 2012 under Sir Alex Ferguson, Man United had to cough out £89 million to bring him back to Old Trafford.
Expectedly the 24-year-old inconsistent performances, especially in the area of goals scored, which has failed to justify his hefty price tag, has drawn a lot of criticism from his critics who believed the midfielder should have put in more efforts.
Though United boss Jose Mourinho has leapt to his defence a number of times, Pogba has decided to defend himself this time around, claiming his critics expected him to be the “striker, midfielder and defender” at the same time due to his transfer fee.
Speaking ahead of United’s Europa League quarter-final match against Anderlecht, Pogba told Skysports that,
“The people are looking at me,”
“They judge me for not scoring goals and stuff like this. If I was scoring goals, the people wouldn’t talk like this but it’s football.”
“The transfer is something else, on the pitch is something else. I am doing a job. I am a midfield player and people think sometimes I’m an attacking player.”
“When I give some assists to people and we don’t score it can happen, nobody talks about this – but it’s fine because they want me to score goals because of the mountain of the transfer.”
“People are looking me saying ‘Pogba should score goals’, ‘Pogba should do this’ – I think you are putting me like as a striker, defender and midfielder.”
“But I just have to do my job: my job is to make the game. Sometimes if I can make the team win, I will do it.”
“But my job is to be a midfielder, make the game, do some assists and everything. If I was scoring the goals that hit the crossbar, I don’t think people would speak like this. But it’s football and we just enjoy it, we love it. It’s fine.”
Pogba has managed just seven goals while hitting the crossbar nine times in 43 appearances across all competi