Manchester United may have lost Paul Pogba but found a new way of playing

It was the definition of a no-win game. Excel and he would be labelled the world’s costliest flat-track bully. Flounder and the criticism would mushroom. Instead, Paul Pogba contrived to find a different form of defeat. If the issues in Manchester United’s midfield are caused by the Frenchman at Middlesbrough on Sunday, the chances are it will not be his fault.

As United marched on in the Europa League, Pogba hobbled off, seemingly hamstrung. Jose Mourinho’s task changes. Instead of solving a problem like Pogba, the Frenchman’s probable absence threatens to cause a problem.

If his nemesis was N’Golo Kante on Monday, here it was Denis Terentyev, the Rostov right-back who Pogba tried to sprint past. A sudden surge seemed to prompt the injury. A huge workload may be another cause. If the watching Sir Alex Ferguson picked Pogba too rarely, Mourinho may have selected him too often. This was his 45th game of the season which, to put it another way, is 11 more than Chelsea have played.

It prompted the question if United’s exertions in their interminable Europa League run will come to cost them in the Premier League, thus exacerbating their need to win the continental competition. Theirs has been a draining campaign and Mourinho rotates less than many of his peers, as marginalised players like Luke Shaw and Bastian Schweinsteiger can testify to their cost. Injuries and ill-behaviour have coalesced at a pivotal period, with Ander Herrera and Zlatan Ibrahimovic suspended for the trip to Middlesbrough.

A season is becoming a war of attrition, a test of reserves of energy, spirit and determination. A 1-0 win over Rostov was a microcosm, a game when United ploughed onwards, not always hugely convincingly but doing enough to prolong their participation.

Now a team who seemed a star vehicle are stripped of the two who top the bill, in Pogba and Ibrahimovic. The sense is the Frenchman will leave a void. In the respect that no-one remotely resembles a direct replacement, Pogba is irreplaceable; if others had that range of attributes, he might have been cheaper. A leaderless Middlesbrough side should face a second-string midfield of Michael Carrick and Marouane Fellaini, shorn of pace; United, once again, will look to make do.

For 45 minutes, Pogba had a very Pogba sort of night, which is to say he did many things reasonably well, picking up possession in front of the centre-backs, showing his athleticism and working hard, but with a sprinkling of pratfalls, the moments that may figure in a personal lowlights reel or can be used in the case for the prosecution.

He is usually on the same wavelength as Ibrahimovic. They weren’t when the Frenchman’s shot cannoned into the Swede. There was an over-hit pass, supposedly bound for Daley Blind, that came closer to hitting the corner flag. A shot was blazed into the East Stand, a free kick lofted way over the Rostov goal.

Then he departed, Juan Mata scored to ensure progress and an element of oddity was injected into proceedings when Blind went off with a cut head and Phil Jones, the man once compared to Duncan Edwards, had to demonstrate his versatility by playing left wing-back, a job he approached with more enthusiasm than aptitude.

He has the can-do attitude that is helping United plough on, but inspiration and innovation can be in short supply so far into a season. Instead, Mourinho opted for imitation. The Portuguese borrowed a tactic from his tormentor Antonio Conte and played 3-4-3. A devotee of the back four has changed shape for both games against Rostov. If it seemed a short-term switch, there are reasons to persevere with the shape.

Mata and Henrikh Mkhitaryan played as inside-forwards, each with a licence to roam in the mould of Eden Hazard and Pedro. They dropped deeper than Ibrahimovic and burst beyond him, when the Armenian sprung the offside trap to meet the Spaniard’s lovely first time ball, almost scoring with a deft lob. All three combined for the goal and they offered the sense they are kindred spirits. The scoreline did not show it, and the Pogba’s departure gave the game a damaging look, but as United’s lost the world’s most expensive footballer, they may have gained another way of playing.