In light of Paul Pogba’s performance for Manchester United in the Premier League draw with Liverpool, Twitter became awash with expressions of critique for United’s dabbing midfielder.
Paul Pogba’s social image of a cultural icon of the footballing variety has seen the world-record transfer fee holder seemingly own many a hashtag, hairstyle and dance move in recent times.
Just this week, the Manchester United ace was afforded his very own emoji update – complete with the almost trademark yellow initials engraved for good measure in the interest of actuality.
Yet, despite his popularity on social media outlets and various YouTube notorieties, Pogba had taken a while to fully adapt to the demands of both the English game and the settling period required after his understandably emotive return to Old Trafford.
Forget the huge amount of finances involved in the deal for one moment, and remember that Pogba the man has a certain sense of unfinished, or even un-started, business at United – having been, for whatever the reason, unceremoniously allowed to leave the club to join Juventus in the summer of 2012.
Pogba has of late been starting to show the quality and high level of performance seen from his time in Italy – but his showing in the 1-1 draw with Liverpool has brought a Twitter world of the #Pogba phenomenon to the fore once again – unfortunately for the France international, as the platform for many a negative comment.
The narrative surrounding Pogba’s display stems from the midfield maverick’s concession of a penalty for a recklessly avoidable handball whilst attempting to defend a Liverpool corner.
In addition to providing the visitors with an ultimately successful opportunity to open the scoring, curtesy of James Milner’s 27th minute spot-kick, Pogba visibly struggled to cope with the aerial threat of Liverpool’s Dejan Lovren – as on several occasions the £89 million man was responsible for marking Lovren, but allowed the defender free, largely unchallenged attempts at winning the ball from many a cross, corner or free-kick.
Further, in open play – where Pogba usually flourishes – United’s number 6 seemed off the pace and resorted to bounding around the Old Trafford turf in search of some sort of redemption, resurgence or even recognition.
However, Pogba’s frustrations were clear to see, as he was certainly guilty of not only a number of stray passes but also a rather obvious headlock-meets-clothesline on his midfield opponent, Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson.
Here’s a taste of the reaction on Twitter to Pogba’s performance against Liverpool:
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