No matter your opinion on the Manchester United penalty taking structure, the whole conversation is getting a bit tiresome at this stage.
It may be slightly unorthodox to leave it down to an on-field decision, but it's nothing that we haven't seen before. The one thing it does do is leave them open to criticism from certain quarters, but the same thing can be said about a number of different areas of football.
Ahead of the weekend's fixture against Crystal Palace, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was always going to be asked about any potential change to decisions on who takes a penalty. According to the United boss, they will continue with their current arrangement.
It’s not that I’ve left it to the players to sort out, we’ve nominated two. It’s not like there’s anarchy and do whatever you want. Last season we had Marcus, Jesse [Lingard], Paul, who all scored penalties, probably more as well.
[There’s] absolutely no fighting among them. We’re disappointed that we didn’t win the game but the talk is always more difficult when you don’t get a result.
I’m sure you’re going to see Paul Pogba score a penalty for Man United again. Definitely.
Let’s see when we get the next one. We’re practising penalties still and Marcus and Paul are still on them.
Pogba was the subject of some sickening abuse on social media after his penalty miss against Wolves, a problem that is becoming all too common.
While the matter is the subject of an ongoing investigation, there is a growing sense that something finally needs to be done to combat this issue.
Solskjaer said that Pogba is unaffected by the abuse, although he hopes some form of action will be taken.
Paul’s fine. Paul’s a strong character and it makes him stronger. When you speak to him, he’s fine and I just cannot believe we’re still sat here in 2019 talking about these instances.
Social media is a place where people – as Harry [Maguire] said – can hide behind fake identities; I don’t think it’s not down to me to change it but there are so many ‘Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s on Twitter I know it’s not me!
We’ve got to do something about it and the authorities have got to do something about the ones who spread this hate.
You just feel sorry for them [the abusers]; they must have problems themselves when they have to do this.
We need to protect individuals and protect people. When there are death threats and racism, they are serious incidents. Sometimes you get annoyed.
