Paul Pogba has attempted to inspire his Manchester United teammates ahead of their crunch clash with Arsenal on Sunday. It probably won’t work.
United are unbeaten in 25 games in the Premier League, but they remain in fifth place in the standings and four points adrift of Liverpool in fourth as the race to qualify for the Champions League continues.
While they could of course book their spot through winning the Europa League, they’ll still want to finish the season strong and pick up a positive result against rivals Arsenal who are just behind them in the table.
Jose Mourinho will look to the likes of £89m signing Pogba to lead by example and push his side over the line to finish the campaign in strong fashion, but this is hardly the most convincing of speeches you’ll ever hear ahead of a massive game.
“Of course, we have to believe,” Pogba told MUTV, as quoted by The Mirror. “Obviously, we want to do it and we can. Of course we’re strong enough, we are Manchester United and we can do this.
“We want to achieve the big goals, not the small ones. We’re confident of that. We’re young and fresh.”
We’re not quite sure ‘we’re young and fresh’ is going to get the job done Paul, nor is a simple ‘we can do this’.
Mourinho has struggled with injuries to key individuals in recent weeks and is far from being at full strength heading into this game. Further, with the potential of prioritising the Europa League, he has hinted and it’s been speculated that he will field a weakened team which will be music to the ears of Arsene Wenger.
It remains to be seen what happens on Sunday, but ultimately we’re not sold on Pogba being the ring leader for the current United group just yet.