French icon brutally lambasts Manchester United enigma Paul Pogba
French icon Marcel Desailly has branded Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba “lazy” and says he “cheats” his defensive responsibilities.
Speaking ahead of United’s Champions League clash with Atletico Madrid on Tuesday night, former France defender Desailly brought a few home truths to the beIN SPORTS studio. Pogba did not start against the LaLiga side at Old Trafford as United crashed out of the tournament, losing 1-0 on the night.
Ralf Rangnick decided to drop Pogba to the bench after the 29-year-old started in last weekend’s win over Spurs. And his 23-minute appearance in the second half may prove to be his final Champions League game in the red of United.
Pogba arrived on 67 minutes to replace Bruno Fernandes. But he could not fashion anything of any note as United lost to Renan Lodi’s far-post header just before half-time.
His contract is up in the summer and there have been no signs of the player extending his deal. And being axed from the starting XI for one of United’s most important games of the season will not have done anything to persuade him to stay.
Rangnick said last month that he had not spoken to Pogba about a new deal. But he urged the former Juve man to “show up” from now until the end of the season.
“We haven’t spoken about that (his future) at all so far. Not only about Paul’s situation but also other players with contracts expiring in the summer, we also didn’t speak about new players so far,” said Rangnick, via the Manchester Evening News.
“He’s lazy, he cheats a little bit and doesn’t help with the midfield defensively!”
World Cup winner @marceldesailly doesn’t hold back on his criticism of Paul Pogba who is on the bench for Man United tonight. #UCL #beINUCL
Watch Now https://t.co/gpZe8hLirP pic.twitter.com/IwLuqXqlec
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS_EN) March 15, 2022
But former Chelsea defender Desailly, who was capped 116 times, criticised Pogba and told beIN SPORTS: “Quality-wise, you cannot compare Paul Pogba to Fred or [Scott] McTominay or [Nemanja] Matic.
“But he’s lazy, if you allow him to be some kind of playmaker behind [Cristiano] Ronaldo he will take advantage of it.
“When he goes well, then he’s fantastic. When he doesn’t go well, offensively he hasn’t gone to what everyone was expecting. And at the same time he will cheat a little bit and not drop back.
“He cheats a little bit and doesn’t help with the midfield defensively.”
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Simone reaction
Atletico fans’ celebrations could be heard in the background as the press conferences got under way. And Atletico boss Diego Simeone was showered with missiles as he ran down the tunnel at full-time.
“When I came off the pitch, I ran because I was happy and I like to enjoy it in the dressing room. So I don’t know what happened (with objects being thrown at me),” the Atleti boss said.
“All I was thinking about was getting into the changing room to the dressing room, and I was really happy.
“We managed to hit them on the counter and hurt them. That gave us a positive result.
“In the second half, we continued to control the game. And we felt more comfortable. We know that our opponent play well on the counter attack, so we tried to reduce spaces.
“Collectively, there was some great effort put in by our centre-backs and it was a collective performance. I didn’t really have to make changes because the work was so good collectively today.”
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