Well, Mourinho wasn’t going to admit any responsibility, was he?
It won’t be news to many of you to hear that Paul Pogba has struggled to maintain a run of form this season, despite patches of brilliance.
He and José Mourinho appear to have a good enough relationship, but the manager is still demanding more of his £89m midfielder. Part of the problem is Mourinho’s insistence on playing 4-2-3-1, when Pogba is best suited to playing in a 4-3-3, with less defensive responsibility.
But Mourinho is not one to work the team around Pogba because of that, especially when he is not giving him good enough performances.
Asked about the root cause of Pogba’s disappointing form, Mourinho said: “Ask him when you get a chance when he thinks about it.”
When quizzed further on how he plans to bring more out of Pogba, the Portuguese appeared to shift all the blame onto Pogba, responding: “I work, it’s the only thing I can do. I cannot do anything else.”
Pogba suffered from a hamstring injury earlier on in the season that kept him sidelined for several weeks – potentially a handy excuse for Mourinho to explain Pogba’s stop-start season. “It’s nothing to do with his injury,” said Mourinho, “his recovery was good.”
Mourinho elaborated: “This season and also last season [he had a bad injury]. But I think he’s very fine after the injury.
“It was a difficult injury, it was an injury that other players, other clubs, other medical assessments – they end in surgery.
“His option – with the medical opinions – was not to go to the surgery table and his recovery was really, really good.
“So I think he is more than fine in relation to his recovery from the injury which is an area sometimes where you have a recurrence. In his case, not at all.”
Unless Pogba and Mourinho come to some sort of agreement whereby they both sacrifice something for the benefit of the team, it looks like one of them may have to leave the club come the end of the season.
