Jose Mourinho was at pains to point out that he
wanted his Manchester United players to
sacrifice for their team after Sunday’s 1-3 win
over Swansea City. The Portuguese suggested
that he needed players who were willing to play
despite carrying knocks, or not being 100%,
which certainly threw criticism in the directions
of Chris Smalling and Luke Shaw, both of whom
made themselves unavailable for selection this
weekend due to knocks. Both England
internationals were said to be ‘baffled’ by their
manager’s words, having been reportedly using
pain-killing injections to get through games at
points this season.
One player that played through the pain at the
Liberty Stadium, and presumably gathered even
more favour with his manager was Paul Pogba.
The Frenchman scored an exquisite half-volley
in the first half to open the scoring before Zlatan
Ibrahimovic’s brace gave United total control of
proceedings.
Speaking to MUTV after the game, Pogba was
full of praise for his team’s first half
performance:
“I think every player wanted to win this game
and everyone was focused. We gave it our best
and gave everything, the first half was
unbelievable. It was one of the best first-half
performances so far and that’s how we have to
play, we have to give everything, we have to
press all together and when we play together we
play like that.” ( Quote via espn ).
Pogba also mentioned that he had been playing
with an injury. The Frenchman had to be
removed during the first half of United’s 2-1
defeat to Fenerbahce in Turkey on Thursday
night, and there were doubts over whether the
former Juventus midfielder would be fit for the
Premier League clash.
Speaking on the injury, Pogba said: “It is not
gone. It’s still here. I was fit enough to play and
after the gaffer put me in I played and I give my
best every time.”
Hopefully Pogba doesn’t aggravate the injury
while on national team duty with France. United
can’t afford not to have him fit for the Arsenal
clash.
Given that Mourinho has clearly got some issues
within the United dressing room regarding how
willing his players are to play for him and their
club, it will be particularly gratifying for the
former Chelsea boss that his club’s record
signing has little in the way of a mental block
when it comes to playing for United. Pogba has
notched four goals since his summer move, and
has been steadily improving the quality of his
performances over the last month or so;
Mourinho will be hoping that this is a trend
which continues.
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