Mourinho: Pogba must learn to play in a team

Daniel Storey

Jose Mourinho believes that Paul Pogba will need protecting following his move to Manchester United.

Pogba joined for a world-record fee of £89m, but has not had a pre-season.

Mourinho believes that it will take time for United to get the best out of Pogba, and that the Frenchman will need protection from his manager.

“He’s a very young player, an unbelievable midfield player with such physicality but, at the same time, such agility, co-ordination, skill. He has everything,” Mourinho told MUTV.

“What he has to learn now is how to play with us because I always say that in football you can be a super player, like he is, but a team is a team and you need to learn how to play in the team, and the team needs to learn how to play with you.

“We need to get the best out of him and this will be a process. So if he needs protection, I am here to protect.

“I know some people think that he arrives here now and, the first time he touches the ball, he scores, but I’m here to protect him and give him the best conditions to be what we think he is going to be, which is a football player for Man United, a reference for this club. I’m so happy.”

“He looks like a kid who is back to his old school and is finding people that he cares about and people that love him a lot.

“So I believe that, after a couple of days, he will feel like he never left the club. So I think at adaptation level, he’s not a new player – he’s just a kid back home again.”