Football news - Paul Parker: Paul Pogba suffering badly under 'hostile line manager' Mourinho
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Updated 16/12/2018 at 12:44 GMT
Paul Pogba's form is deteriorating under Jose Mourinho, a manager who must shoulder his share of blame for the World Cup winner's struggles ahead of Manchester United's trip to Anfield, writes Paul Parker.
Jose Mourinho, Paul Pogba
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Pogba not in right frame of mind for Anfield cauldron
The critics are already out in force saying you can’t play Paul Pogba against Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday because his form is not good and his head is not in the right place.
But nobody can expect his head to be in a good place in the current climate. As much as a lot of people want to blame him, I think we have to remember football is a business.
In industry, we have to accept that when employees are not happy with the management above them, their work deteriorates and suffers.
Paul Pogba’s work is deteriorating because he is not happy with what is happening with his line manager. All of a sudden, the critics want to jump on the back of Pogba saying he should be professional. But all he is, is another employee in a company and he isn’t happy with his line manager.
So he needs to sort out his situation within the work force and figure out how he can get back to where he was before: loving his job, and performing well without any distractions.
He needs to get back to enjoying his work and doing it properly. At the moment, he is suffering because he is getting a hostile reception from his line manager.
I don’t think you can play him in the state of mind he might be in at the moment. United need him, but he needs to be able to get out there and play with the belief and support of his line manager.
Deteriorating relationship 'damaging United'
If he is allowed to go out there and make mistakes because he is doing what his line manager wants, that wouldn’t be a problem.
The line manager is not giving him the right information or maybe not treating him in the way he should be treated. There is a clear problem if that is the case. There is a big level of talent, but you need to be able to drag the maximum level of talent out of such a player.
He has not become a bad player overnight. What he needs is someone to bring the talent out of him and bring back his appetite to want to play football.
He hasn’t got that at the moment. Not because he is a bad player or is being unprofessional, it is just that he is not getting what he needs to produce what he can for United.
In any other industry, this would be sorted out swiftly. In football people are sniping and blaming him. It is a two-part scenario: there are two people involved in the working relationship.
There is Pogba the person not producing his best, and there is the person who is not getting the best out of him.
There are not too many positives we can take out of the situation at the moment. Something has to give within the relationship because it is affecting the football club.
More importantly, it is impacting the team because they are missing their main central midfield player.
There is an obvious problem that needs to be sorted out.
Liverpool expect maximum points
Liverpool don’t want United coming to Anfield to pick up points.
The Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has injury issues, but it is a test of their squad. He knows injuries and suspensions happen during a season, but his side are going into it in better shape than United.
They’re going to have to use that to their advantage. They’ve been rock solid in defence, only conceding six goals.
He is going to want to keep that going with Virgil van Dijk being a big leader and the goalkeeper Alisson making a difference.
The rest have got to do their jobs. They are a real attacking force at Anfield. Liverpool will still be expected to win that game of football.
Valencia defeat won't have surprised Mourinho
When you put out a bunch of players who haven’t played together, you can’t expect too much from it.
If Mourinho wanted the Valencia match to build towards the weekend, it certainly didn’t work. Or it was probably never going to work which I think he knew.
Again, you can’t suddenly start saying you were disappointed with the nature of the 2-1 defeat when you know those players haven’t played regularly together. Some were playing out of position and when you put Marouane Fellaini as your defensive midfielder, what do you expect?
Mourinho will go to Anfield and do what he has done on the last three occasions because it is his only strength.
But it is all about what Liverpool do because Klopp knows what United are going to do. Can United deal with Liverpool’s attacking threat? Liverpool were slightly better in the previous game against United but it finished 0-0 last season.
I’m sure they will be better this time thought because they have since bought more attacking armoury.
Mourinho's United lack a proper structure
I think United will have to work hard to ensure Liverpool don’t get their noses in front.
If Liverpool score first, there are going to be a lot of questions needing answered by United.
If they fall behind, do United have a plan about what to do next? Will they bring on Fellaini for the long ball because at the moment they have no structure.
You don’t know what is going to happen next when you watch them. Sometimes that’s a good thing when the manager can pull something out of the bag.
But at this moment in time as you saw against Valencia, there is no structure or philosophy that is working for them.
Why I'm staying clear of Italia '90 Brexit dispute
I noticed my old England team-mates Gary Lineker and Peter Shilton were involved in a bit of a Brexit debate on Twitter.
I don’t get involved in that. I would need someone to help me on that one because there is too much going on.
You can end up being pilloried if you say the wrong thing. Nobody has any idea what direction that is going.
I do think the snipers need to get off the back of the Prime Minister. Everybody was asked for a decision, and a decision was given.
The whole thing is a massive game without any technology.
Paul Parker@realpaulparker2
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