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16th Apr 2017

We doubt you’ll agree with Paul Pogba’s view of N’Golo Kante

"They don’t speak about this"

Robert Redmond

If you say so, Paul.

It appears as though criticism has touched a nerve with Paul Pogba. The Manchester United midfielder, signed from Juventus last summer for a world record fee, has experienced a mixed first season back in England.

Pogba has failed to fully convince, despite his obvious talent, and his large transfer fee has inevitably been mentioned after each stray pass and failure to track an opponent.

The performance of N’Golo Kante also hasn’t helped the perception of Pogba.

Kante cost £32m when he joined Chelsea from Leicester City last summer, almost £60m less than what Pogba cost United, but has comfortably outperformed his French compatriot.

The Chelsea midfielder also got the better of Pogba twice already this season, and could potentially win the player of the year award.

However, Pogba feels Kante is not being judged on the same terms as he is, and that this is unfair.

“I’ve heard Kante is a top, top midfielder, which I agree with,” Pogba told Sky Sports.

“He is a top-class midfielder for what he does. But he doesn’t score many goals, does he? They don’t speak about this.

“They speak about what he does on the pitch. He gets the ball, he passes the ball and he makes the game. Me, I try to do this.

“I score more goals than Kante but they still say Kante does this and does that. If you want to speak about scoring goals, you should judge every midfielder the same way.

“They only speak about the transfer and about the money. I wanted to say, in real life for a normal person, nobody can be worth ÂŁ100m.”

Pogba’s comments sound a bit sour. Kante is judged on winning the ball back and keeping possession, and he does it better than any other midfielder in the division, possibly in Europe.

It’s also impossible to ‘judge every midfielder the same way’ because different midfielders have different roles.

Pogba might be more talented than Kante, but the Chelsea has been more effective for his team. That’s why people are praising his performances and saying he’s had a better season than Pogba.

He also scored twice against United this season, so it’s not as if Kante’s is incapable of scoring.