Paul Pogba could be in for worse times at Manchester United as the club decided to bench him ahead of the club’s important UEFA Champions League game against RB Leipzig.
The match is arguably Manchester United‘s biggest game in this season’s Champions League campaign because United might need three points to scale through to the round of 16. The club is currently topping Champions League group H with 9 points, the same points as second-placed Paris Saint Germain and third-placed RB Leipzig. But the Premier League club is ahead of the two teams due to superior goals difference.
This means that Manchester United must not dare to drop any point despite playing far away in Germany because if they do, their fate of qualifying for the next round of the competition might no longer be in their hands. It might be in the hands of the Istanbul Basaksehir match against PSG.
For instance, if PSG win against Istanbul Basaksehir and RB Leipzig manage to win over Manchester United, that means that PSG and RB Leipzig will scale through to the second round of the competition to the detriment of Manchester United.
Despite the match being so important, Manchester United’s coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer benched Paul Pogba even though the 27-year-old French midfielder scored the first goal in United’s 3-1 victory over West Ham last weekend.
Though Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said ahead of the Champions League clash against the German club that “we need a team that’s flexible, a team with legs and we need experience because it’s a big game”, it is believed that Paul Pogba had to be benched because of the comments credited to the player’s agent, Mino Raiola.
Big game 🔜
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) December 8, 2020
Big performance needed 😤#MUFC #UCL pic.twitter.com/9Y3adpYmOS
The football agent claimed ahead of the Manchester United Champions League match against RB Leipzig that his client is not happy at Manchester United because he is not allowed to play football the way he enjoys it. He also revealed that the France international will not renew his contract with United which is expected to expire in June 2022.
Hence, Mino Raiola urged Manchester United to let Paul Pogba go in the next transfer window or risk seeing the former Juventus star leave United for free.
The comments of the football agent have been criticized heavily by many pundits in the United Kingdom and the comments have reportedly annoyed some powers at United. But it is left to see whether it is worth it to bench a productive player like Paul Pogba because of some comments from his football agent.
If Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his boys fail to win over RB Leipzig and end up failing to qualify for the next round of the Champions League, most United’s fans may want to believe that if Paul Pogba had started the match, the opposite would have happened.
As at the time of publishing this report, RB Leipzig has already scored 2 goals against Manchester United in the first 17 minutes of the Champions League group match. If it ends this way, Manchester United are out of this season’s Champions League campaign.
