Mourinho opens up about Pogba form slump

Jose Mourinho has urged Paul Pogba to ignore his world-record price tag backed the £89m midfielder to bounce back to form.

The former Manchester United FA Youth Cup winner was bought back to the club in the summer from Juventus, with the Reds making him the most expensive player ever.

The 23-year-old made a steady start on his debut against Southampton and at Hull City.

However, he was anonymous in the Manchester derby defeat at Old Trafford and again struggled to make an impact as United were beaten 1-0 by Feyenoord in Rotterdam in their Europa League opener.

But ahead of United's attempt to get back to winning ways at Watford following back-to-back defeats, Mourinho has insisted some other club's summer outlays were, pound-for-pound, more lavish

“The world record player is always a question that will be open until somebody breaks the record and I think that there are clubs that paid £20m, £30m, £40m which is a bigger deal than what Man Utd paid for Paul,” Mourinho explained.

“You make a relation between what you pay and the club revenue and you realise that other clubs paying 20, 30, £40m is a much bigger thing than what Man Utd did and I just want Paul to forget that and to play his football.

“He had no pre-season, Euro 2016 final, no pre-season, holidays, come back, it’s normal that in the first week he had the very good impact in the first game.

“It’s normal that after the first game he has a little decrease, but I am full of trust with him because I know the player he is. I know he is a very good guy with a lot of ambition so the form will come naturally and will come with the team improving.

“The team improves, he will improve. No problem.”

Pogba's position in United's engine room has come under the spotlight with former United midfielder Paul Scholes, on duty at Feyenoord as a TV pundit, remarking: “I don’t really know what position he’s playing at the minute. Has he got a position? Has he been told to play where he wants?

“He seems to be a little all over the place at times.”
But Mourinho insists there is no problem about where the Frenchman is playing.

“He can play where he was playing before in the Premier League or where he did against Feyenoord,” added the Old Trafford manager. "It’s not a problem with his position. He feels comfortable.

“It depends on the situation, in the Premier League we were playing with Wayne Rooney as a No.10, so we were playing him positional, and in Rotterdam we played with (Morgan) Schneiderlin in front of the back four and we gave him more freedom to occupy other spaces.”

Manchester Evening News