‘Going against players’: Paul Pogba criticises Jose Mourinho’s man-management style
Midfielder made his fractious relationship with Mourinho clear in a comparison with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Paul Pogba has attacked Jose Mourinho’s man-management style, accusing him of “going against players” and making them feel like “they don’t exist any more”.
Mourinho made Pogba the world’s most expensive player following his 2016 appointment as Manchester United manager.
Pogba was instrumental as United claimed a League Cup and Europa League double in 2017, but the pair had an uneasy relationship before Mourinho was sacked in December 2018 and succeeded by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Mourinho’s relationship with some of his players had deteriorated following that first campaign and there were reports of a training ground spat with Pogba after the France midfielder player was stripped of the United vice-captaincy in September 2018.
“What I have now with Ole is different because he wouldn’t go against the players,” Pogba said in a Sky Sports interview. “It’s not like you put them on the side and they don’t exist any more. I think that’s the difference between Mourinho and Ole.
“Once I had a great relationship with Mourinho. Everybody sees that and the next day you don’t know what happened. That’s the strange thing I had with Mourinho. And I can not explain to you because, even me, I don’t know.”
Pogba’s comments came after United piled the pressure on Mourinho with a 3-1 win at Tottenham last Sunday.
Solskjaer and Mourinho clashed in a heated exchange of words after the United boss was unhappy when Son Heung-min went down in the build-up to Edinson Cavani’s controversial disallowed opener.
Mourinho said he was left “very disappointed” by Solskjaer’s claims that he would not feed his son if he had behaved like Son, but Pogba accused the Portuguese of using deflection tactics to take the focus away from Tottenham’s performance.
Pogba said: “I am sure Mourinho said something that made people speak. That’s what he does. We got the result that we wanted. Ole knows it and we enjoyed that moment. We know Mourinho and what he likes. We don’t need this.
“We just focus on us, we won the game, he lost the game, and he doesn’t want to speak about the game. He wants to speak about the dad of someone, that’s what he does. Everybody knows it. It’s very Mourinho.”
PA
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments