Manchester United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2018 pt3

~Rebel~ wrote: »

Couple of things there - primarily, that my statement is a general truism of football. I'm not attacking or defending any player or manager or team, it's just a fact that if a system is set up to suit certain players, those players will look better, and feel better about what they're doing.

One obvious thing in comparing a world cup against a league campaign is motivation. You know a world cup is a maximum of 7 games every 4 years. That's it. So i'd expect it to be easier mentally for any player to lock in for those 7 games to just do what needs to be done, even if they don't like their role as much. For a league campaign, it's got to all just run together. That's your career, your bread and butter... league after league after league, year after year. So if you're doing things week in week out that you're not a fan of, and don't consider to be 'your game', it'll probably get ya down a bit more. Bit of a slog.

The other side is that not all defensive minded teams are the same, and perhaps those little differences are where the difference in enjoyment of one's role comes in. France looked ready to break at all times, and Pogba had Griezmann and Mbappe largely released from any defensive duties to be ready to break through the lines at a moments notice. It looked like the runs of Griezmann and Mbappe in particular were part of a plan a lot of the time, with other players knowing what they were going to do, and making decisions based on that knowledge. Like the very early Pogba ball to a sprinting Mbappe and the follow up. That football often looks off-the-cuff, but usually isn't.

I don't watch tonnes of Utd matches in full, but i've seen enough to see that it often looks like the front three aren't necessarily on the same page. It doesn't look like it's a cohesive plan to pull defenders around and open space for the onrushing midfielders... it sort of looks like it's up to them to figure out what to do when the break happens - aside from the plan of a header knock-on to a sprinter running behind. That's the one move you can tell was planned and practiced and is very effective as a result - you don't see the same precision and repeated use with other moves I think. So perhaps being a part of a cohesive attacking plan where you're in sync with those ahead of you, acting out a game plan instead of just being expected to pull off magic, makes a similar role much more enjoyable and satisfying.

Should Pogba be doing more with his ability and wages for Utd? Yup, probably. But you can't separate humanity from ability... to get the best of one you have to appeal to the other. For the longer term, you have to make the experience feel good, like there's a goal to be achieved, and a plan to achieve it, and everyone feels better, regardless what your job is.