Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes tore into Paul Pogba after Sunday’s 3-2 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion. The Frenchman, who again captained the side in the absence of Antonio Valencia struggled on the South Coast with the majority of his teammates, and could not recover from conceding three first half goals.
Pogba’s performance was singled out for criticism by Scholes, with the former United man offering the following to Optus Sport, with quotes carried by Goal.com:
“There’s a lack of leaders in the team, that’s why we thought Paul Pogba might be the ideal candidate to be that leader but he wasn’t there.
“He had another really poor game. He’s so inconsistent.”
Scholes was less-than impressed with Pogba’s comments, too, taking umbridge with the Frenchman’s suggestion that his own attitude wasn’t right:
“I hope that is lost in translation. There is no defence for that comment, there is no defence for it.
“You say it to yourself, don’t you? You’re constantly saying to yourself: ‘Attitude right, make sure it’s right.’ You don’t need other people to tell you. You don’t need a manager to tell you that or your team-mates.
“Lukaku can do it [win games]. Martial can do it. Martial, in that first half – what was he on for? 55 minutes? An hour? He got one ball down the left-hand side in the first half.
“And he absolutely flew past the right-back. I can’t remember another time when you get the ball to him. As a midfield player for United, your job is to get the ball to your best players who can hurt [the opposition].
“But the Man United midfield players could never do it. They couldn’t get a ball in to Lukaku, they couldn’t get a ball in to Martial and they couldn’t get a ball in to [Marcus] Rashford when he came on.”
Criticising Pogba has become something of a habit for former United players when the Frenchman has underperformed, but he was far from alone in a dour display by the entire side. No one in red excelled, which is surely of more concern than Pogba’s individual performance.
