Paul Pogba’s return to Man United last summer in a world record deal has been met by lots of criticism from the media and pundits, and the reason cannot be farfetched. His transfer fees has generated a lot of debate and question begging for answers while his performances have also not been spared of the two.
The French midfielder was brought back to Old Trafford after successful four seasons with Juventus where he won four Serie A titles as well as two Coppa Italia. And during the period he was away, a lot of changes has occurred at Old Trafford, starting with the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson which could be referred to as the Genesis of United dwindling fortune which none of his successors have able to address properly.
Hopes were raised and expectations were high that the frustrating times would end when Jose Mourinho brought Pogba back to England. However, scoring just seven across all competitions since the start of the season has put the 24-year-old under serious scrutiny across the media and has been tagged an expensive flop and truly much will be expected from such a player after coughing out a whopping £89 million to sign him.
However, there seems to be misplaced expectations from the fans and the media, the midfielder was not actually bought to be a goal machine for United but rather to Marshall the midfield and deliver quality ball for the forwards; Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Wayne Rooney, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial.
His inconsistent goal scoring has hidden more eye catching statistics that showed that the player is doing what he was actually signed for. He has completed 1,567 passes, completed 64 take-ons and created 50 chances – he probably would have been among the players with the most assists but for his teammates not being clinical enough.
The bottom line is that if United attacking force had been more clinical in the final third, Pogba would not have faced much criticism and he would have had a high number of assists to his name.
