Why Paul Pogba’s Style Of Play Is More Effective For France Than Manchester United?

“It’s time to start talking about his football and not his haircuts”.

Since his record-breaking move to Manchester United in 2016, everyone has heard pundits say that about Paul Pogba at some point.

So that’s exactly what we’re going to do.

In particular, we’ll discuss why he is seen as more effective for France than his club.

Like many midfielders, Pogbas performances can appear to fluctuate due to his surroundings and what is demanded of him.

In recent years, various systems and specific midfield roles have been introduced in the Premier League, and Manchester United is no exception.

Focusing on this season, we’ve seen Jose Mourinhos coaching style use several different systems, from a 3-5-2 to a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-3-3.

However, these systems have rarely been used with Pogba in mind as the main tool for them to work.

The best way to demonstrate this is to look at Pogba before and after Manchester United’s eventful January.

Paul Pogba at Manchester United before January 2018

For the majority of this time, Manchester United played a 4-2-3-1 in which Pogba was joined by Nemanja Matic at the base of the midfield.

Standing at 6’3”, many may believe this role may suit Pogba as he could dominate midfield.

However, in actual fact, he is a much more attacking midfielder who likes to venture into advanced positions.

With four attacking players ahead of him when playing this deep, Pogba wasn’t used as one of the creative forces in the United side but as the enabler for those creative forces, as the example below shows.

Here, we see Pogba receive the ball in midfields first line.

With Jesse Lingard, Juan Mata, and Henrikh Mkhitaryan ahead of him, its Pogba’s job to unlock them so they can create chances further up the pitch.