Yeah, I'm not saying I'd want him to stop trying passes and dribbles, just that he needs to time these moments better, improve his decision-making when it comes to going for the spectacular or keeping things simple. But fair enough, that can only come with time.
Think the Herrera comparison is actually pretty apt.
Yeah, his timing and decision making are the only places I can find fault, unfortunately he has a tendency to hold onto the ball a bit too much at times and occasionally chooses a fancier pass than necessary, but I think that's all normal for a player his age and still adjusting to the tempo of the league, in Italy he had all the time in the world, but he's slowly adjusting that aspect.
If he's still doing this stuff at 25 years old he'll deserve to get raked over the coals, but I think by the end of this season he'll have made good progress and I think next season we'll see him far more comfortable. The whole issue around his price tag will have blown over and he'll have less scrutiny on his performances.
Pogba does so many great little things on the ball and in terms of movement, I feel like it gets lost. He looked a little leggy tonight, which was understandable. But for the last 2 months he has been playing in 3 different roles in midfield and has bossed matches.
Also I do not understand the complaints about him in the box defensively. Did anyone really expect him to be good at that? Have people not watched him?
A lot of his contributions are quite subtle, the way he protects possession and slows things down to let the back 4 reorganize, how he carries the ball out from midfield, he starts a lot of attacks by releasing a wide player or forward smartly. He's been doing great this season, he's hit the post like 9 times already too, he could be close to Zlatan in terms of goals. I think a lot of people feel he should be better defensively because of his build, but as a CM he doesn't need to be amazing at it, it's not his responsibility.
Gerrard, Lampard, Scholes, Keane, Xavi, Pirlo, Xabi Alonso, etc were probably all really horrible at that part of the game at 23, I'm sure he'll adjust. Pogba's deficits usually come out when he's playing as a 6 in a double pivot, it highlights how much we need a proper CDM in the summer, because it means Pogba doesn't have to worry as much about parts of the game he isn't naturally good at when he's just playing as a standard CM. Despite what it says on his shirt, Pogba isn't a #6.
