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Darren Fletcher Recounts His Difficulty With Trying To Coach Paul Pogba

Darren Fletcher Recounts His Difficulty With Trying To Coach Paul Pogba
Eoin Lyons
By Eoin Lyons
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Darren Fletcher was a guest pundit on tonight's Monday Night Football coverage of Huddersfield and Fulham, and the Scot impressed many with his punditry work.

Fletcher delved into his memories of coaching Paul Pogba when the Frenchman was on the reserve team, painting a familiar picture of the player United fans have come to expect since his second spell at the club:

I did a spell of coaching with the reserve team, when the reserve team included Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Ravel Morrison, lots of talented players. We played him a lot higher up the pitch, advanced areas and attacking areas, central, right or left or wide. And we felt like he was the one who was going to go on and win us games really.

Combination of the fact that we felt he had a little bit of ill discipline in the middle of the park as more of a normal central midfielder.

The Stoke midfielder also brought up the game that was the catalyst for Pogba's exit from Manchester, a loss against Blackburn where Rafael, Phil Jones and Ji-Sung Park deputised in midfield amid an injury crisis, whilst the young Frenchman remained on the bench:

At that time we didn't feel like he was disciplined enough to be in the reserve team, so to then jump into playing with the first team in an important game.

I think he seen himself as a central midfielder but we seen him more like an attacking midfielder who could get in areas and be a match winner.

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On a more positive note, Fletcher praised  Pogba's recent performance in United's 2-1 win at Bournemouth on Saturday.

The 34-year-old highlighted the fact that the Frenchman found himself on the left side of the pitch in an attacking area, and cited the attacking prowess of Luke Shaw and Anthony Martial on the wing as the reason why Pogba was so influential there.

The former United midfielder went on to say that the way United played a lot of football on that left wing in that game was reminiscent of when Henry was at Arsenal and the bulk of their forward play went down the left channel with Ashley Cole and Robert Pires, and that it could prove a fruitful tactic for United moving forward.

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Jose Mourinho will be hoping that his team will be similarly effective against Man City next weekend and believes that the Portugese should omit Romelu Lukaku from the starting line-up:

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I'd like to see pace in the front areas.

I would like to see Rashford come in.

It's a big dilemma really, there's a lot more fluidity and movement with this front three [of Martial, Rashford, Lingard]. They could end up anywhere that front three, bit like the United of old with Ronaldo, Tevez and Wayne.

That would frighten Man City on the counter attack. Man City having possession of the ball would be scared of that.

See Also: Jamie Carragher On Why Liverpool Fans Need To Relax

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