Who thought Pogba was Man United’s worst player?

Life and death
We often say on Mediawatch that ‘if the opposite is a bigger story, then it’s not news’. We think we may have found the ultimate example:

Extra points added for the use of ‘insists’. Who is he trying to convince?

 

Sing it loud…
Only Jamie Redknapp could describe Manchester United’s newly crowned Player of the Year Ander Herrera as their ‘unsung hero’.

 

No. 9 Dream
The Sun’s
Neil Ashton writes that Daley Blind was ‘probably United’s best player’, while Paul Pogba ‘flourished in the centre of midfield’ with Ander Herrera ‘dominating alongside him’. Poor Marouane Fellaini does not even get a mention in Ashton’s match report, despite his assist for Pogba’s opener.

Selected DREAM TEAM RATINGS a few centimetres to the right: Blind 7, Herrera 7, Pogba 7, STAR MAN FELLAINI 9.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what happens when you inexplicably round WhoScored ratings of 7.92 and 7.93 down to 7.

 

WatchPog
Ashton’s Sun colleague Mike McGrath was charged with a ‘POGBA WATCH’ but we cannot help but think he might have had his eyes closed.

Apparently, Pogba ‘kept his cool with fast passes and challenges arriving quickly. Sometimes guilty of looking for the spectacular pass when it isn’t on, but he reined that in at the Friends Arena. And he was tackling hard, sensibly and not recklessly when Ajax were trying to break’.

Tackles made by Paul Pogba in the Europa League final: 1.
Pass completion rate of Paul Pogba in the Europa League final: 60.5%

Apart from that he ‘kept his cool with fast passes and challenges arriving quickly’.

 

It’s a shame about Ray
Despite not really tackling at all and having a pretty poor pass completion rate, any sane person watched that Europa League final and noted that Paul Pogba had an excellent game. The Daily Mirror said he ‘stood out like a beacon in midfield’ and the Daily Mail said he was ‘too big for Ajax to handle’.

Over to Ray Wilkins on Sky Sports: ‘We haven’t seen the best of Pogba this season. He wasn’t that prominent in the game and I expected more from him in all honesty.’

No player was rated lower.

But what should we expect from a man who watched Wayne Rooney come on the pitch in the 89th minute, touch the ball once and concluded:

‘I was delighted that Rooney got on because he is Manchester United. It was great to see him lift the trophy. He’s still only 31 and we still keep writing this guy off. I’m sure with a bit of rest and a bit of enthusiasm coming back next season he can return to the level of performance we all know he can reach. He may get that rest now if he’s not in the England squad and it will do him the world of good. I’d be very surprised if United let him go this summer.’

You may well be in for a shock, Ray.

 

Hip to be square
But what of the disappointing Ajax? The Daily Mirror’s John Cross found the opportunity to bang his favourite drum…

Oh to live in the world of the Daily Mirror’s Chief Football Writer, where writing a piece about a young non-English side in a European final is ‘hipster’.

Rory Smith is not wrong on many things but…

 

Chapter and Merse
There’s little that Sky Sports like more than asking Paul Merson for his grades. You may remember September when he gave Chelsea an A+ for their efforts despite ‘writing’ this delicious paragraph:

‘I don’t think Marcos Alonso is good enough for Chelsea. Michy Batshuayi looks lively so far, and N’Golo Kante makes Chelsea the team to beat this season. David Luiz? No, no, no, no, no. Did you watch him play against Monaco last week? He gave away the silliest penalty I’ve ever seen and Paris Saint-Germain probably dropped him off. Having said that, I’m still giving them an A+ because I think Kante is that good.’

Just wonderful.

So of course Chelsea get another A+ for winning the title, while second-placed Tottenham are handed an A alongside some fanciful notion that they would win the Premier League next season if it weren’t for that pesky move to Wembley. In fourth are Liverpool with a B+. which sounds absolutely fair enough.

So what of the team in third, who have moved up one place and 12 points in a season? Well, they deserve nothing more than a D.

Now Mediawatch is not about to argue that Manchester City had an impressive season, but D? The same as relegated Hull? Worse than 17th-placed Watford (who were given a C because ‘they are not the biggest club in the world and they have stayed up’)? Only marginally better than bloody Arsenal?

Maybe Merson is just disappointed after giving City an A for their transfer efforts. After all, Nolito is ‘very clever’ and ‘reminds him a little bit of Robert Pires’; how could they not have won the title with that kind of pedigree?

Other nuggets include…

* Bournemouth getting a B+. They finished ninth after he predicted they would go down. Surely that deserves a bloody A.

* This on West Brom (B-): ‘They have got a decent team but had some hard games at the end of the season which didn’t help their finishing position.’

Yes, it’s no wonder they failed to win any of their final nine games of the season when they were forced to play Watford, Southampton, Leicester, Burnley and Swansea.

* Crystal Palace get an E and Merson says: ‘They should be in the top half along with Stoke and West Ham. It was really disappointing from Palace. They should be much better than 14th.’

Merson’s predicted position for Palace at the start of the season: 12th.

* You may remember that Swansea finished three places and five points ahead of Palace in 2015/16. And yet their survival earns them a bombastic B. As Merson says: ‘They stayed up, which was the name of the game for them. They stay up, add a few players and in four or five years try to challenge higher up or have a great cup run.’

This was Swansea’s sixth season in the Premier League. In that time they have won a cup (after a ‘great cup run’) and finished in the top 12 in five previous seasons.

So yeah, B for Bloody Brilliant.

* This on Marco Silva (“What’s he know about the Premier League? What’s he know?”) and Hull is just wonderful:

‘When Marco Silva came in he did well at certain times but the last few results were really poor. You can’t get away from the fact they have gone down. It’s a big club and they will be disappointed they went down.

‘I know I didn’t agree with Marco Silva at first but he did great when he came in and changed some things. He might have got some luck along the way – at times they were 1-0 down and he changed it and it worked – and looking back now you ask if it was luck, because the last few games they lost to Sunderland then got ripped apart by Palace.’

Because there is nothing ‘luckier’ than a manager making changes and subsequently winning games.

Oh and since Silva became manager in January, Hull picked up more points than Stoke, Watford, Burnley and West Brom, as well as the two other relegated sides. He definitely ‘did well at certain times’, fella. Hull will indeed ‘be disappointed they went down’. But they were probably a lot less disappointed than they were in January when had 13 points from their first 20 games.

Still, Gary Rowett would probably have done better.

* Poor Sunderland: ‘They were poor and never really gave themselves any chance of getting out of it. They started slowly and finished slowly. It was a miracle last year they stayed up but it was just a matter of time.’

Merson’s predicted Sunderland finish at the start of the season: 12th. David Moyes was going to make them ‘hard to beat’, you see.

 

Shameless clickbait headline of the week
‘Selfish’ Man United player out of cup final’ – Football365.

But at least we didn’t use a picture of Jose Mourinho…

To save you a click: Gedion Zelalem.

 

Recommended reading of the day
Jonathan Wilson on the limits of Jose Mourinho’s pragmatism
Ian Ladyman on the agony of Ajax falling short
Michael Cox gives out tactical awards