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Manchester United’s inability to turn enormous financial resources into a fully functioning team is epitomized by Paul Pogba’s struggle to justify a place on the team that is far from outstanding from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
It is not the first time that Pogba spoke of his frustrations at the club level in international service with France last week, where he shone again when the World Cup champions booked their place in the four finalists of the Nations League.
Brought back to United for a world-record fee of £ 89 million ($ A151 million) in 2016, Pogba’s second stint at Old Trafford has been one of starts and starts, never living up to long-term expectations. .
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United gets by with Baggies … alone
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Repeatedly leaving Pogba out was one of the factors that led to José Mourinho’s dismissal as United manager in December 2018.
But almost two years later, another coach, Solskjaer, has come to the same conclusion.
Pogba has started just one of United’s last five Premier League games, in which he gave away the winning penalty in a 1-0 loss to Arsenal.
In three of the four league games that Solskjaer has chosen Pogba from the start, United have lost at Old Trafford, including a 6-1 humiliation of Tottenham in which the 27-year-old was guilty of conceding another penalty.
Where Pogba once had the star power and price to justify his place, he’s no longer United’s most influential midfielder.
Bruno Fernandes raised his tally to 19 goals in 34 appearances since arriving in January from Sporting Lisbon with the winner in a boring 1-0 win over West Brom on Saturday.
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Pogba missed that match due to a minor injury, but Solskjaer hopes he will be fit for Tuesday’s visit to Istanbul Basaksehir in the Champions League.
Aside from a handful of promising performances when the Premier League returned from a three-month shutdown due to coronavirus in June, Solskjaer has yet to find a way to match Fernandes and Pogba in the same midfield without being overrun.
The two started the first three league games of this season together when they conceded 11 goals to Crystal Palace, Brighton and Spurs.
Tellingly, Pogba’s club’s only notable display of the season so far came in a 5-0 defeat of RB Leipzig in the Champions League, when Fernandes was left on the bench.
Far more often, it is Pogba who has sacrificed himself with Solskjaer relying on the industry of Fred and Scott McTominay or Nemanja Matic to balance the midfield.
“He’s in a situation with his club where he can’t be happy, neither with his playing time nor with his positioning,” French coach Didier Deschamps said.
Last month, United activated a club option to extend Pogba’s contract for one year until 2022, but that says more about wanting to protect his value in the transfer market than guaranteeing his long-term future at Old Trafford.
Pogba has repeatedly insisted on his desire to one day play for Real Madrid, especially if it means playing under Zinedine Zidane.
Now blessed with a wealth of midfield options, with the £ 40m signing Donny van de Beek also fighting for playing time, United would be open for sale at the end of the season.
But they would have to accept a huge loss in the fee they paid four years ago unless Pogba can finally begin to prove himself.
Solskjaer insisted this week that Pogba remains “a very important player.”
However, the Norwegian has not been willing to risk his job by keeping him on the team.
The loss to Basaksehir three weeks ago put pressure on Solskjaer again after a strong start to United’s Champions League campaign in which they beat two of last season’s semi-finalists, Leipzig and Paris Saint-Germain.
The Red Devils can’t risk repeating the Turkish champions’ visit on Tuesday.
That Solskjaer now tends to sideline Pogba when he most needs a win reflects the little return on investment United are getting from their most expensive player in history.
