Manchester United midfielder, Paul Pogba has rated the man-management skills of the club’s coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer above that of the club’s former coach Jose Mourinho. He claimed that Mourinho would not explain to players why they are being benched but Solskjaer would.
Recall that Jose Mourinho who is currently the manager of Tottenham Hotspur was the coach of Manchester United between 2016 and 2018. During his reign at the club, Paul Pogba played 108 games in all competitions in which he scored 20 goals and provided 22 assists.
Despite such glowing stats, Paul Pogba and Jose Mourinho were not the best of friends especially towards the last years of the Portuguese coach at the club. Jose Mourinho used to bench Pogba even when he was fit to play and that did not go down well with the France international.
Things got so bad between Mourinho and Pogba that the Portuguese coach had to sack the France international as the club’s assistant captain.
As his relationship with Pogba was getting worse, Mourinho struggled to achieve up to expectation in the 2017-2018 season. The Portuguese tactician continued to struggle when the 2018-2019 season started until Manchester United’s board grew impatient and decided to sack him in 2018.
The Portuguese tactician was replaced by Solskjaer in an interim capacity before he was made the permanent manager of the club. Since then, the Norwegian tactician has been able to unify the team which was reportedly not united in the last years of Mourinho’s era.
In an interview with Sky Sports, Paul Pogba recalled how his relationship with Mourinho at Manchester United used to be cordial but suddenly changed without any known reason.
The Frenchman went on to note that his relationship with the club’s current coach is better than what he used to have with Mourinho, noting that Solskjaer does not go against his players like Mourinho.
“What I have now with Ole is different, he wouldn’t go against the players,” Pogba said “He wouldn’t go against the players.
“Maybe Ole wouldn’t pick them, but it’s not like he puts them on the side like they don’t exist anymore. That’s the difference between Mourinho and Ole.
“Once I had a great relationship with Mourinho, everybody saw that, and the next day you don’t know what happened. That’s the strange thing I had with Mourinho and I cannot explain to you because even I don’t know. So, yeah.”
Besides Paul Pogba, another player that had it really rough under Jose Mourinho was Luke Shaw. The coach benched him for games and described him as a player who is not intelligent enough.
Pogba said: “Maybe [Solskjaer’s methods work] because he is a bit closer to the people.
“Every coach has their own way to coach and deals with players, and as a player, you have to adapt. Sometimes it doesn’t suit you and sometimes it does.
“Ole has helped Luke a lot, it was a difficult season with Luke and Mourinho, and he has proved he has the quality he always had and the trust of the manager.”
𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠 effort. 🔥
— Paul Pogba (@paulpogba) April 15, 2021
𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠 victory! 😛 pic.twitter.com/IrKEnV3Kud
One response to “Paul Pogba of Man United attacks Jose Mourinho over poor man-management”
[…] Mourinho reportedly warned Pogba that he would never lead the team again under his guidance due to worries over his attitude, before sacking him two months later following a string of dismal results. […]