MU quells chaos: Pogba trembles on the bench and Mourinho's "threatening" glare
Expressing his anger and disobeying his teacher, Paul Pogba was immediately "punished" by Mourinho by being put on the bench in the 2-0 MU match against Huddersfield last weekend.
After a heated argument with Mourinho on the Wembley sidelines, Pogba was immediately forced off the pitch. Three days later, MU's most expensive player was pushed to the bench, when the Red Devils were in dire need of a win against Huddersfield. He was replaced by a relatively unknown name - Scott McTominay.
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| Pogba sat on the bench against Huddersfield. |
It was the first time Paul Pogba was substituted in a Premier League match and it was also the first time he was abandoned in this way by the Portuguese coach.
Mourinho can give many explanations, "putting away" Pogba for tactical reasons, McTominay deserves a chance or even praise the French midfielder's talent... but it cannot hide what he wants to remind his students: don't be rude, arguing with the teacher will only bring loss.
In the past, David Beckham, Roy Keane, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Jaap Stam all paid a heavy price for falling out with Sir Alex Ferguson.
No matter how big his ego is, no player is allowed to be bigger than the club. And he is not allowed to go against the head coach's decision.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan broke the taboo and just had to leave MU. In the match against Brighton at the end of November last year, Mkhitaryan reacted strongly to the instructions that Mourinho gave outside the pitch.
At Carrington training ground the next day, the teacher-student relationship became even more tense, when Mkhitaryan stood up and argued with the "special one" during a video analysis meeting.
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| Mkhitaryan had to leave Old Trafford for disobeying Mourinho's orders. |
After that, Miki only started two more matches and Mourinho reported to the big bosses, ready to liquidate the Armenian star. In the end, Mkhitaryan had to move to Arsenal in a forced way, in an exchange with Alexis Sanchez.
A similar situation happened to Ander Herrera. The Spanish midfielder was voted MU's best player last season and is one of the strong candidates to take over the captaincy left by Rooney.
However, this season he has been constantly on the bench. The arrival of new signing Matic has somewhat limited Ander Herrera's playing opportunities, but now he is even behind Fellaini and McTominay in terms of options in central midfield.
In fact, Herrera upset Mourinho in May 2018. Ander Herrera invited a friend who was the coordinator of Celta Vigo to visit Carrington, just before the two teams met in the Europa League semi-finals.
Knowing the story, Mourinho flew into a rage, dragged Herrera into his office and scolded him.
The Spaniard has started just eight Premier League games this season and was left out of the squad for the recent clash with Huddersfield, with Carrick fit.
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| Pogba has a big ego, but don't be foolish enough to go against Mourinho!. |
Back to Pogba's case, if the former Juventus player gets injured or is not fit enough to play, he will be out of the game. However, Pogba is still named by Mourinho as one of the seven reserve slots.
When reporters asked about the debate between the two teachers and students at Wembley Stadium in the middle of the week, Mourinho deliberately ignored it with a brief explanation "the changes were all for tactical reasons".
Paul Pogba had to watch his teammates fight for more than an hour against Huddersfield, then warmed up and replaced Jesse Lingard, when the situation was almost decided.
That is also the message that Mourinho implicitly sent to Pogba and his teammates. Don't be foolish enough to "talk back" to the teacher! What will be the outcome, look at Mkhitaryan...
