Former Manchester United striker Robin van Persie has offered some advice to Red Devils misfit Paul Pogba after a difficult season at Old Trafford.
Pogba has never quite got going as a Man Utd player, and it’s been even more of a challenge for him this season due to missing so much of the campaign through injury.
This has allowed other stories about the France international to dominate the headlines, and Van Persie says he can sympathise as he also had trouble with injuries for much of his career.
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Still, the Dutchman believes Pogba now needs to come out and make it a bit clearer how he’s feeling and what he wants from life at United.
“It’s very difficult. With Pogba, it’s an interesting situation,” Van Persie, speaking courtesy of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, told Stats Perform, as quoted by Goal.
“Pogba, in my opinion, is a world-class player, he has proven it over the years. He has it all.
“But first, I think with him, and that’s after a couple of years now, I think he should come out and he should say what his favourite position is. If that’s done, then people can judge him based on this position. Now, I don’t think people really know if he’s a six, if he’s a number 10… that’s a big difference.
“I have the feeling people judge him a bit unfairly. They expect 20 goals, they expect 20 assists, they expect Pogba to make Manchester United champions. But, is he a six? If he’s a six, then you cannot expect 20 goals. If he’s a 10, maybe 12 to 15 goals. So, it’s not really fair on him because it’s not really clear.
“Then, you have the second subject: is he happy there? There’s constantly rumours, you have the agent constantly giving interviews, you have the coach answering questions almost every day, every week. There’s a lot going on beside the main event, and the most important thing is football.
“I know how it works, especially if you’re injured. People can’t judge you on your game, so they start to talk about other things.
“I think for Pogba, and Manchester, it would be best to… I don’t know, do an interview together or something, together with the coach, and just say, ‘Listen: this is what I want, this is where I would like to play – judge me on that. I’m happy, or I’m not happy, or whatever’. Now, it’s a lot of questions going around.”
One imagines MUFC fans would appreciate this from the 26-year-old, who often seems to let his outspoken agent Mino Raiola do too much of the talking on his behalf.
It remains to be seen how much longer Pogba will be at the club, but it does seem worth doing something to at least put the distracting speculation to bed.